52 APPENDIX. 



otherwise than that six weeks should elapse before Prof. 

 Owen could test the correctness of the doubt which he 

 mooted to me ; and Mr. Lyell must have been aware of this, 

 when referring to " September" conversations, and when in- 

 timating that Prof Owen (really absent in Ireland), was all 

 the time within reach both of the Museum in Lincoln's Inn 

 Fields, and the fossil which has acquired such distinguished 

 notoriety. 



Up to the date of November the 1st, I had not enterta,ined 

 the most distant suspicion of Prof Owen having been a j^arty 

 to the charge against me by Mr. Lyell ; as I felt conscious 

 that no act of mine could have afforded the slightest found- 

 ation for any interruption to the friendly intimacy which 

 had long subsisted between us ; and the only communication 

 on the subject which had passed between myself and the Pro- 

 fessor, had given me the full impression that he was indig- 

 nant at the course which a third party had been pursuing. 

 I was, however, soon to be undeceived. The charge against 

 me in the case of the supposed opossum, and which I fully 

 thought to have been concocted by Mr. Lyell alone, proving a 

 break-down. Professor Owen, in writing to deny that he 

 had communicated to me any doubt as to his first determi- 

 nation of that fossil, takes the opportunity of reminding me 

 that I had intended to rob him of his discovery of the nature 

 of the other fossil. No. 2 (the monkey's jaw), but that he had 

 learned from me what I was about to do, and had put a stop 

 to my intention. After perusing the contents of this epistle, 

 it was impossible that 1 could remain in the dark any longer. 

 I saw clearly that I was to be victimized, for having taken a 

 part in making known so important a step in tertiary Geology 

 as the discovery at Kingston, and my reputation for integrity 

 and candour in the pursuit of science to be destroyed : the 

 agents resorted to for that purpose, being forgery and false- 

 hood, and the most heartless treachery on the part of Prof. 

 Owen and Mr. Lyell. 1 replied to Prof Owen's letter in a 

 way that left it open for him to withdraw his charge, if he had 

 expressed that which he did not intend to convey ; but hear- 

 ing nothing farther from him, I determined to save both him- 

 self and Mr. Lyell the necessity of privately warning other 

 parties of my fraudulent propensities, by publishing the cor- 

 respondence, and pleading that I was charged with acts and 

 intentions which I never had entertained or committed ; thus 

 leaving it open to any one who might read the correspond- 

 ence, to believe Prof. Owen if they chose, and act accord- 

 ingly. It will be seen, upon this determination being made 

 known that the Hunterian Professor at the College o Sur- 



