

O ON THE TRANSLATION OF MINERAL CONCHOLOGY. 



sirous of attempting another edition of a work wLich has all along been to 

 me a source of vexation and sacrifice, whatever intellectual enjoyment it 

 may have produced me. If, therefore, a cheap edition of my work he 

 really seriously talked of, I should like to know the parties who are about 

 to engage in it, as I should have some advice to give them to enable them 

 more readily to attain the object which I, at least, think they should have in 

 view ; viz., the diffusion of a work regarded as useful, and not merely an 

 attempt to injure me. As my work will be completely finished in a 

 year, with the 15th livraison, which I hope to publish next Easter, I shall 

 esteem myself fortunate to see the work translated, in whatever shape it 

 may appear. 



Hoping that you will insert the contents of this letter entire and literally 

 translated, I have the honour to inform you that I have sent copies to se- 

 veral of my friends. 



Louis Agassiz. 



To the Editor of the 

 Miujazine of Natural History. 



[Observations in reply to tlie preceding letter.] * 



Our remarks upon M. Nicolet's French edition of Sowerby's work on the 

 fossil shells of this country, have drawn forth a reply from Prof. Agassiz, 

 which should have received a place in our last month's number, had it 

 not reached us too late for publication. We now insert his letter, with 

 a translation of its contents, that every publicity in our power may be 

 given to the vindication which he has put forward. Had the work under 

 notice originated with none other name than those of the printer, pub- 

 lisher, and artist, greatly as we might have regretted, for the interests of 

 science, the non-existence of international protecting enactments, the 

 matter would have appeared to us one of comparatively trivial importance, 

 and instead of advancing anything in the shape of reproach or remon- 

 strance, we should have deemed it the wiser course to have been altoge- 

 ther silent. 



The name, however, of Louis Agassiz, as the Editor and avowed pro- 

 jector of the reprint, and the plausible statement from a man of such high 

 scientific reputation, that its cheapness, when compared with the price of 

 the original work, must necessarily tend to further the progress of Geo- 

 logy, made us determine, without a moment's hesitation, on the course 

 which we pursued. For though originating in such a quarter the scheme 

 threatened to be tenfold more injurious in its operation, we felt that Agas- 

 siz was bound by so many ties to this country, that he would probably 

 consider himself amenable to the expression of censure, if publicly di- 



* Mag. Nat. Hist. Vol. iii. u. s. p. 3oi). 



