xxxiv MEMOIR OF SIR J. G. DALYELL. 



" Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, 

 October 29, 1849. 



" Sir, 



I have asked ray esteemed friend, Professor Goodsir, to give you a copy of some lec- 

 tures I have lately delivered at our College of Surgeons. I beg your acceptance of them, 

 not because I think they can afford you pleasure, but because I am anxious to acknowledge 

 the great advantage which I derived, in preparing them, from your beautiful book on the 

 Rare Animals of Scotland. I cannot sufficiently express to you my admiration of your 

 researches, or the exceeding pleasure that I found in making myself (so far as I was able) 

 acquainted with them. Permit me to add to all those you have already received, my thanks 

 for your scientific labours, and my hope that you may yet, for very many years, be able and 

 willing to instruct us. 



" When Professor Goodsir told me of your love of antiquities, I begged him to offer 

 vou a copy of a pamphlet which I printed a few years ago, and which contains all that I 

 could find, in our Hospital records, of the life and deeds of the great Harvey. Possibly, in 

 this you may find some matters of interest to you ; but if not, let it yet convey another as- 

 surance of my respect and gratitude. Allow me to be. Sir, 



Your faithful Servant, 



James Paget." 

 Sir John Graham Dalyell, Bart. 



Mr Paget, in his lecture above alluded to, on " The processes of Re- 

 pair and Reproduction after Injuries/' referred to several diagrams which 

 he had copied from Sir John's engravings, illustrative of the progress of 

 the Hydra in its development of young medusoo, and of tbe I'ubidaria in- 

 divisa, thus generalizes on the importance of the discovery : — 



" There are yet some topics which I mil crave your indulgence, that I may suggest for 

 your consideration, if only as an apology for a lecture in which I may seem to have been 

 discussing doctrines that can hardly be applicable to our daily practice, and with illustrations 

 drawn from objects in which, as surgeons, we may have but little interest. Let me, then, 

 express my belief that, if ever we are to escape from the obscurities and uncertainties of our 

 art it must be through the study of those highest laws of our science, which are expressed 

 in the simplest terms in the lives of the lowest order of creation. It was in the search after 

 the mysteries — that is, after the unknown highest laws — of generation, that the first glance 

 was gained of the largest truth in physiology — the truth of the development of ova through 

 partition and multiplication of the embryo-cells. So may the study of the repair of injuries 

 Bustained by the lowest polypes lead us to the clearer knowledge of that law, in reliance 

 upon which alone we dare to practise our profession — the law that lost perfection may be 



