I 



Statements reflecting on the University of Cambridge. 385 



Society, I did make written application to the parties whose 

 names are mentioned in the note quoted above, and among them 

 to Prof. Sedgwick, but receiving no letter from him in reply, 

 I recollect well solacing myself with the idea that I should very 

 shortly see him at the Anniversary Meeting of the Members of 

 the Ipswich Museum. 



In the earlier part of my recent correspondence with 

 Prof. Sedgwick, he expresses a total oblivion regarding the 

 receipt of such a letter from me touching the loan of Corals, but 

 subsequently the existence of such a letter, although entirely 

 forgotten by the worthy Professor, is rendered apparent by a 

 quotation from one of Prof. Sedgwick^s notes to Prof. M'Coy, in 

 which he deputes the latter gentleman to reply to my commu- 

 nication. What that letter may have contained, I cannot pretend 

 to say with precision, but Prof. Sedgwick says it has reference 

 only to Secondary Corals, and it is not improbable that I may 

 have used that term in its oldest and most extended sense ; but, 

 let that be as it may, I am certain regarding my personal appli- 

 cation at Ipswich to the Professor, and which application it 

 appears he has forgotten as completely as he did the letter above 

 alluded to, which it ultimately appears from his own evidence he 

 received. 



As I expected, I met Prof. Sedgwick at the house of a mutual 

 friend, at Ipswich, on the evening preceding the Anniversary of 

 the Ipswich Museum, but I had no opportunity during the 

 evening of conversing with him ; but on the following morning, 

 shortly after breakfast, I applied to Prof. Sedgwick, in the name 

 of the Council of the Palseontographical Society, for the loan of 

 such Mountain Limestone and Silurian fossils as Prof. M. -Ed- 

 wards might require from the Cambridge Museum, for the com- 

 pletion of his Monograph; and I recollect well the purport of his 

 reply was, " That he could not himself do it— that such things 

 were not permitted to leave the University — and that the proper 

 course would be to make a formal application to the governing 

 body of the University (I forget the term used), and that he did 

 not think they would then grant the request.^' 



I wrote to M. Edwards the result of my application, and 

 afterwards told him personally what had occurred, and he agreed 

 with me in considering it as a refusal. At the next meeting of 

 the Council there was a general expression of regret at the result 

 of the application, and a strong conviction that, had the Professor 

 thought fit to have assisted us in the affair, there would have 

 been but few difficulties to surmount. 



In corroboration of the above statement, I may mention that 

 in a note recently received from Prof. Milne-Edwards, he writes, 

 *^ If I remember right, it was either you. Sir II. de la Beche or 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xiii. 25 



