Autograph letter signed from Sir James Young Simpson to Dr Barham, Edinburgh, 3 January 1866, on the subject of Dr Barham's antique tin marked with a symbol that Simpson is trying to decipher.

In the letter, Simpson tells Barham that "Professor Stephens of Copenhagen is here at pressent, & has told us at the Antiquarian Society that your jug of tin ... has upon it this mark X which he reads as a rune in old English meaning ST which he believes to mean Stan or Stone - the name - as he supposes of the proprietor. This appears to me to be all very doubtful, I find in Kenrick's Phoenician a letter of the Phoenician alphabet of the same form X, & it seems to me to be as likely this as S.T. I would feel greatly obliged if you could kindly send me a sketch of the natrual size of the mark or the marks, or a gutterpercha cast or paper cast ..."

"Professor Stephens" is very likely to be George Stephens (1813-1895), professor at the University of Copenhagen, specialist in runic inscriptions.