Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Agriculture, Taxonomy, Natural History, Mental Illness, Materialism, Mathematics

    Perplexed by the decision of Dorchester magistrates 'that apples are no agricultural produce' or 'produced from trees that grow in cultured ground'. Following a claim by 'An American philosopher' that 'madness was a mineral', the author suggests that the apple might be an animal and thinks that Dorchester magistrates remind her of 'the 5th Proposition of Euclid'—the 'Pons Asinorum' or 'Asses' Bridge'.