52 Dr. Fitton's Notes on the History of English Geology. 



patriotic persons, for the double purpose of publishing Smith's 

 works, and of compensating the author, — on the ground that 

 4 the expenses he had incurred in travelling and in sacrificing 

 4 time that ought to have been altogether devoted to his pro- 

 4 fessional duties, were not likely to be repaid to him by the 

 * profits of their publication/ In the course of this year also 

 his collection of specimens was removed to his house in 

 London ; where it was seen and examined by many of the 

 persons interested in the subject ; among whom were several 

 of those who afterwards became leading members of the Geo- 

 logical Society, on the institution of that body in 1807. The 

 collection was subsequently (.liJ#*3) purchased by Government 

 for the British Museum, where it now remains. 



In the mean time, this continued delay in the publication of 

 works so long announced, must have appeared unaccount- 

 able to those who were not acquainted with the circum- 

 stances; and as the hopes of a communication from the author 

 himself had been so often disappointed, it was not to be ex- 

 pected that other persons should abstain from applying the 

 general principles which had been so freely diffused. Those 

 who, from indolence or a fastidious desire of perfection, or — 

 as in the case of Mr. Smith, from a combination of unfor- 

 tunate events, — too long delay the appropriation of what they 

 have done, must be content to run the risk of seeing their 

 discoveries brought forward by other persons. Nor would it 

 be just or reasonable, without the strongest evidence, to doubt 

 the fairness of such rival claimants. The history of every 

 science abounds in examples of coincidence in discovery, pro- 

 duced by accident, — by the natural course of inquiry, — or by 

 the effect of hints so very slight, as not to be appreciable even 

 by those who act upon them. 



During the latter years of Mr. Smith's progress in England, 

 the French naturalists had been intently occupied in the ex- 

 amination of their own country: and in 1810, Cuvier and 

 Brongniart published an abstract of their celebrated work on 

 the environs of Paris*, which was followed during the next 

 year by the volume itselff. Of a work so well known, it is 



* Essai sur la Geographic Mineralogique des Environs de Paris. — Annates 

 du Museum, torn. xi. p. 293, &c. This abstract is stated (p. 294-5; to 

 have been read to the Institute in 1810:— and the authors expressly say 

 that their abridgement was published before the completion of their work, 

 — which had been commenced four years before, in 1806, — for the purpose 

 of '* taking date" for their researches. — Quelques circonstances nous obligent 

 de presenter aujourd'/iui cet abrige, et de prendre date pour des recherches aussi 

 tongues, fyc' 



f Paris 1811. 4to. pp. 278. 



