10 APPENDIX. 



than Mr. Neville Wood reprinted the statement upon the co- 

 ver of bis own journal, and sent presentation copies of that 

 one number, to the scientific societies of London, where 

 the new editor of the Magazine being well known, the for- 

 gery was sure to be detected. A member of the Council of 

 the Zoological Society brought the subject officially before 

 the notice of that body, and the result was, that the then se- 

 cretary received instructions to return the copy of the * Natu- 

 ralist' to Mr. Wood, and to communicate to him by letter the 

 determination of the Council, not to admit the work into the 

 library of their Society. The records of our metropolitan 

 scientific institutions probably do not furnish another instance 

 of a presentation copy of a work being rejected, under cir- 

 cumstances so discreditable to its author. 



Mr. Neville Wood will probably say that his pen did not 

 furnish the manuscript to the ' Sheffield Iris,' nor his hand 

 post the copies of that paper to their respective destinations ; 

 but whether it was done by him or for him, is nothing to 

 the purpose : that he was a party to the fabrication, it is im- 

 possible to doubt ; for had he not been so, upon the return of 

 the ' Naturalist' by the Council of the Zoological Society, he 

 would of course have given some intimation, in a subsequent 

 number of his journal, of there having been no foundation for 

 the injurious statements referred to ; and which statements 

 he had reprinted, protected by the cowardly manoeu\Te, of 

 quoting as an authority the columns of a provincial paper. 



From the editor of the 'Iris' I received the following 

 letter. 



No. 4. 



Iris Office, Nov. 7, 1837. 



Sir, 



I received yours dated November 1st, and immediately endea- 

 voured to make reparation for the mistake I had unintentionally permitted 

 to appear in the Iris, by inserting an apology in the most conspicuous place 

 of the same paper of this day, a copy of which I have forwarded to you by 

 this day's post 



I regret exceedingly the misstatements, as I had not the slightest 

 intention of doing any injury to the sale of the periodical you are connected 

 with, or to Mr. Loudon, or to you, as a gentleman and an editor, through 

 the pages of the Iris. I trust this, and the explanation in the /ns, will be 

 deemed satisfactory. 



I remain, 



Your most obedient Servant, 



JOHN BRIDGEFORD. 



To what extent I may have sustained injury in quarters 

 where personally Mr. Neville Wood and myself are alike un- 

 known, I have no means of forming an opinion. I trusted 



