DIFFICULTIES OF PUBLICATION 



certainly most shameful," he writes, " that I have not 

 received from government even one single copy of my 

 own work, except the sheets of one as it was printed, 

 which were to be used for reference in proof-reading, 

 making out an index, etc." 



There was still another annoyance, by which some of 

 the scientific corps were more affected than Dana. It 

 was the use which Wilkes made in his narrative of the 

 notes and journals of his colleagues, who naturally de- 

 sired to have the opportunity of first announcing to the 

 public whatever might be new or striking in their ob- 

 servations. So far as I have discovered, there was no 

 charge against the commander of a dishonest use of these 

 materials, but the natural protest respecting priority and 

 mode of presentation. 



At one time (in 1846) Dana was requested, if not 

 ordered, to live in Washington while preparing his reports. 

 "It is perfectly absurd," he writes to a friend, " that I 

 should be able to prepare my reports in a city where there 

 are no books! " 



The reader who is not interested in these branches of 

 natural history may pass by the following correspondence. 

 It will, however, arrest the attention of those who are 

 familiar with the progress of science in America, for they 

 will here perceive the obstacles which were encountered 

 by an honest and thorough investigator in the final pub- 

 lication of his memoirs. 



Mr. Tappan having released Mr. Dana from any re- 

 sponsibility respecting the actinias, and advised him to 

 confine himself to the corals, geology, and Crustacea, 

 Dana acquiesced in this request, and in the winter of 

 1845-46 brought to a conclusion the first of his reports, 

 with that volume of beautiful colored plates which has 

 introduced so many persons to the aspects of living 

 corals. To his appreciative colleague in Cambridge he 

 wrote three letters, two of which justify the method that 



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