reflecting on the University of Cambridge. 283 



as regards the University my direct reply shall not be long. I 

 affirm, that no application, direct or indirect, was ever made to 

 me, either by MM. Edwards and Haime, or by any member of 

 the Palseontographical Society, for a loan of any part of the Cam- 

 bridge Palaeozoic fossils ; and I was astonished when I first read 

 the above quotation, and the note affixed to it. For till that 

 time I had not so much as heard that the two distinguished 

 authors had undertaken the description of the older British 

 fossil corals, and commenced their task. 



This I stated in a letter to Professor Milne-Edwards, who 

 justified what he had written by an appeal to Mr. Bowerbank, 

 the Honorary Secretary of the Palseontographical Society. 



With that gentleman (of whom 1 shall ever speak with kindness 

 and respect) I have, consequently, had a short correspondence, 

 in which he states that Professor Edwards did come to Cam- 

 bridge and applied for a loan of certain fossil corals. On this 

 point there is no dispute or doubt. But he further states, that 

 after the Professor's return from Cambridge, he (Mr. B.) en- 

 deavoured to enforce the application by a letter to myself ; " that 

 he never wrote to me (in behalf of the Palseontographical Society) 

 hut once, and that once was regarding the Palaozoic fossils.^* He 

 further states, " that shortly after having written,'^ he met me 

 at Ipswich, and in a short conversation, as we were on the point 

 of starting to a public meeting, he again made his request for 

 the loan of the corals*. 



Of the conversation I have not the shadow of a remembrance ; 

 but I can prove to demonstration, that his letter (above-men- 

 tioned) had reference only to the Oolitic corals. From the very 

 first he appears to have laboured under a positive mistake as to 

 the nature and extent of Professor Edwards's application to our 

 museum ; and one mistake inevitably led to another. 



Independently of all direct evidence, what are the obvious 

 probabilities of the case ? When MM. Edwards and Haime 

 were at Cambridge (in 1849?) they asked for the loan of 

 certain Oolitic species, and /or no others (Prof. M'Coy's letter, 

 infra) f. Therefore any subsequent letter urging their request 



* I have no present means of fixing the date of the conversation al- 

 luded to in the text ; but it must have taken place (as I collect from Mr. B.) 

 at one of the annual Ipswich meetings which preceded the meeting of the 

 British Association in 1851 ; and therefore probably in 1850. 



t I cannot exactly fix the date of the visit of MM. Edwards and Haime, 

 but Professor M'Coy informs me that it took place a considerable time 

 before the publication of the First Part of their British Fossil Corals ; — it 

 must therefore have been in 1849 or early in 1850. He adds, in the note I 

 have just received from him, " They "made no application for Palaeozoic fos- 

 sils, which they knew I was publishing, and which they told me they had 

 then no intention of touching." 



