Br. Dkhfon's Reply to Mr. Clarie. 65 



breadth of a foot, over the young turnips, going backwards 

 and forwards. What confirms me in this idea is, that, hav- 

 ing drawn a buncli of elder over a bed of young cauiitiowers 

 which had becr-.m to be pricked, they afterwards remained 

 untouched by tliefe infects. 



Another ta6l which tends to fupport this idea is, that 

 when my neighbourhood, about eight or nine years ago, was 

 ib infelted with caterpillars that they devoured all the vege- 

 tables, leaving fcarcely a green leaf untouched, they fpared 

 the elder-trees amidfl this general devaftation, and never 

 niolefted them. In reflefting on thefe circumftances, I am 

 of opinion that the elder might be introduced with advantage 

 into our gardens, as the means of prelerving fruit-trees and 

 various plants from the rapacity of infecls. 



The dwarf elder appears to me to exhale a much more 

 fetid faiell than, the common elder, and therefore ought to 

 be preferred in making experiments on this lubjeft. 



XI r. Reply to a Charge of Plagtarifm, brought by Mr. 

 Henry Clarke againjl W. Dickson, LL. D. Com- 

 mu7ucated in a Letter J'rom Dr. Dickson to Mr. TiL- 



LQCll. 



I 



HAVE partly drawn up, and hoped before this to have 

 laid before the Public, a Defenfe of Sir liaac Newton, and 

 fome other diftinguiflied Britifh mathematicians, againft 

 the mifreprefentations of Mr. Henry Clarke, and of the wri- 

 ter of the mathematical articles of the Monihly Review. 

 But a didreffing complaint, which is alleviated but not yet 

 removed, has, as you know, long rendered me almoft, and 

 at limes altogether, incapable of the neceffary application to 

 more ferious concerns, which will demand my whole atten- 

 tion for fome time to come. 



I certainly owe the gentlemen fome return for their Ani- 

 madverfions * on one of my notes on C. Carnot's excellent 

 piece on the Infinitefimal Calculus; and it will be eafy to 

 repay them in their own coin, and with intereft. In that 

 inftancc, it is true, and perhaps in others, I unfortunately 



* See Animadverfions on Dickfon's Tranflition of C. Carnot's Rc- 

 fltclions on the Theory of the Infinitefimal Calculus, by Henry Clarke, 

 l.tt I'ralt/l.Coll. Muklux. he. fold by T. Hurft, No. 32, PaternolU'r 

 Row.— Alfo the Monthly Review Enlarged, wl. xxxviii. p. 440- 44«- 

 I»J. Series. 



Vol, XV. No. 57. F miflook 



