the Anniversary Meeting of the Geological Society, 1856. 179 



threshold was thought in old times to be an evil omen. When, 

 in the same sentence, he professes to con-ect my memory, he has 

 perhaps shown some lack of memory himself; for I did not simply 

 state (m my letter to the Editorsof the Philosophical Magazine and 

 Journal, August 20, 1854) "that the Council refused to publish 

 my paper;" I expressly added the facts, of which he generously 

 reminds me (as if I had studiously kept them back or forgotten 

 them) : viz. " that the Council were willing to print my paper 

 after suppressing the discussion on classification and nomencla- 

 ture." Was 1 called upon (in the letter just quoted) to make any 

 allusion to Mr. Hamilton's mistakes in the previous month of 

 Maj^, or to the correspondence that had arisen out of them ? I 

 think the very contrary; and that I should have done much 

 wrong had I entered upon the facts of the case more fully than 

 was done in my letter of August 1854. 



To the facts given in the latter portion of the previous extract 

 I have nothing to oppose, and I only wish to deal with the con- 

 clusions that are drawn from them. At the time my paper was 

 sent to the Editors of this Journal (August 20, 1854), I did not 

 believe that any part of it had been read in extenso before the 

 Geological Society ; I did not believe that it had been accepted 

 by the Council in its integrity ; neither did I beheve that it 

 had been publicly discussed or submitted to a Referee. To have 

 stated all this in my introductory letter would have been, I 

 thought, disrespectful to the Geological Society ; and the Editors 

 will not, I trust, blame me for the omission. That I made some 

 mistakes respecting the acceptance of my paper by the Council 

 of the Geological Society, I now fully admit. But who led me 

 into these mistakes ? Mr. Hamilton himself, as I am prepared 

 to prove by a bare enumeration of facts. 



Early in October 1853 I drew up the paper above mentioned, 

 and when it was finished, I wrote to the Secretary of the Geolo- 

 gical Society, stating my earnest wish that it might be read at 

 their first autumnal meeting*. Soon afterwards, I was informed 

 by Prof. E. Forbes, that (for reasons fully stated in his reply) my 

 wishes could not then be complied with. This was a great dis- 

 appointment to me : and before the expiration of the laborious 

 work of the Michaelmas term I was attacked by a lingering 

 illness, which made it impossible for me to attend any meeting 

 of the Society during the following winter and spring. 



Early in March 1854 I, however, revised several sheets of my 

 paper; and on the 12th of March they were forwarded to the 

 Secretary of the Geological Society, along with a note in which 

 I stated that the sequel of the manuscript would follow in a few 



* It was the only meeting during the Michaehnas term of 1864 that I 

 could uttcud compatibly with my eugagemeuts nt Cambridge. 



