486 Final Statement of Mr. Swainson, 



As. I am contemptuously urged for farther explanations on 

 this topic, I must now declare that he " who adopts theories 

 he does not understand " is Mr. Vigors. He has proved this 

 by his own words, in his published writings. 1 have con- 

 victed this person, moreover, of being profoundly ignorant of 

 the very essence of that quinary and circular system upon 

 which he publicly lectures.* These are no random assertions. 

 They rest upon scientific details now coming before the public, 

 divested, as all such matters should be, of personal feeling. 



To me this exposure is any thing but distressing. Living 

 on terms of intimacy or of friendship with almost every 

 naturalist in London, whispered defamations, from time to 

 time, have reached my ears : they have now appeared in a 

 definite shape, and I rejoice in the power of fairly meeting 

 them.f 



If it is enquired, what good results from this controversy ? 

 J would reply, much. Truth is the result of discussion. A 

 better tone will be assumed by those who write and those who 

 edit. Students will know the respective merits of their 

 teachers ; and a beneficial change will be effected, sooner or 

 later, in the management of the Zoological Society.^ For 

 myself, I have little or no personal interest in these matters : 

 praise and blame, from such a quarter, are alike indifferent to 

 me. I have stepped forward as the champion of others, not 

 of myself. Had I desired controversy upon my own ac- 

 count, I have shown it might have been begun three years 

 ago. I have done, in fact, what every one of your readers, 

 placed in M. Lesson's situation, bit and worried on all 

 sides,, would have most cordially thanked me for. Let them 

 remember this, and I am sure of their approbation. Nothing 

 shall now tempt me to another reply, 



I am, dear Sir, yours, &c. 



William Swainson. 



Tittenhanger Green, St. Albans, 

 October L 1831. 



* " What influence these mistfnderstanding parties could have had upon 

 the real interests of science, I am," says Mr. Vigors, " at a loss to discover.'* 

 In other words, it is of no consequence whether a public lecturer under- 

 stands, or not, the theory which he professes to explain and illustrate. 



f It is almost beneath me to say that the " famous story " about the 

 hyacinthine maccaw is a complete fabrication. The specimen in question 

 was exchanged, not sold, for sixteen small African birds, with this person's 

 friend, the bird-stuffer. 



J Who does not know that you. Sir, more than any other reformer, by 

 your just and manly attacks on the Horticultural Society, worked as great 

 a change in the disreputable management of that institution, as is now so 

 loudly called for in the Zoological ? 



