LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDOJf. 43 



\A-ork is stated to be registered in " The District Court of Ehode 

 Island," and I have asked Dr. Putnam if he will kindly ascertain 

 whether it is actually entered in the records of the Court *. 



The comparison between the two pamphlets is, in my opinion, 

 unfavourable to the autlieuticity of the one witli the earlier date. 

 The undoubtedly genuine pamphlet contains nothing surprising, 

 nothing that any able man, well read in the ethnology of his day, 

 might not have inferred. Although the two works pi-esent 

 obvious resemblances — for instance in the treatment of gun- 

 powder — there is not the slightest hint in the later pamphlet of 

 the existence of the earlier one, nor of any original view contained 

 in it. And there is one passage at least where such reference was 

 to be expected. Speaking in 1S60 of the unsanitary conditions 

 of ancient Greece the author says: — "Undoubtedly these tended 

 to cause the great plague of Athens — which unheard of disease in 

 modern times is no doubt owing to the superior education of man, 

 whose vast accumulation of scientific facts are fast developing the 

 origin and causes of great pestilences." (p. 13.) 



Histor)/ of the only copy at present laioivn f. — By far the strongest 

 evidence in favour of the authenticity of the earlier work is to 

 be found in the history of the copy now presented to the Society, 

 as given in the first part of this address (pp. 26-27). Many of the 

 ideas must have been originated by the author, if they are printed 

 in a pamphlet bought in 3 891 or 1892 of a bookseller who then 

 said that it was an old work and had been through many hands. 

 This history destroys the vaUdity of an objection which has been 

 felt by many to whom I have shown the pamphlet — the very 

 completeness and balance of the anticipations, and the fact that 

 so many important modern ideas are touched off, often in a few 

 lines. The views on the origin of life and on insects as carriers 

 of disease must I think, under any circumstances, have been 

 original, and those upon the germinal origin of characters and 

 some of the thoughts on resistance almost certainly so. 



The excessive rarity of the pamphlet is probably a point in 

 favour of its authenticity. 



The use of characteristic Huxleyan and Spencerian words. — When 

 I read the pamphlet for the first time, I was struck with the em- 

 ployment of the word " Agnostic " as though it were in general 

 use. The author is speaking, on page 15, of Education and what 

 she has done for Man. He speaks of " her Commerce and Travels ; 

 her Printing Press and Schools ; her Gunpowder and her Agnostic 

 with his untrammelled thought, ". 



"Unknown Cause" on p. 5 and "vegetal" on p. 2 (we find 

 " vegetable " on pages 9 and 19) suggest Herbert Spencer, but 



* Dr. Putnam has now kindly sent me a letter fi-om Mr. Tborvald Solberg, 

 Eegister of Copyrights, stating that the title of the 1860 pampblet was duly 

 registered on April 27, 1860, but that no copy was deposited. — E. B. 3? 

 Aug. 12, 1913. 



t I have since learnt from Mr. J. F. Sleeper that he possesses three copies 

 of the pamphlet.— E. B. P. Aug. 12, 1913. 



