96 APPENDIX. 



letter from Edinburgh, a part of which letter he was to show 

 to every body, and which was already given to be read before 

 the Royal Society. When I was informed of this, I was 

 astonished, as I remembered to have heard the Professor, since 

 that time, declare that they were not discovered. Besides, I 

 had a note taken from his lectures within two years of his 

 making this claim, in which was a similar acknowledgment. 1 I 

 was convinced therefore that he had no title to these discoveries. 

 Upon which I laid before the Royal Society my reasons for that 

 conviction, in a letter to one of their secretaries. Of this letter 

 I shall give the reader an account, but shall first lay before him 

 a literal copy of Dr. Monro's claim. 



Copy of Dr. Alexander Monro's claim, fyc. read before the 

 Royal Society, Jan. 19, 1769. 



" Above four years ago (says he) I injected the lacteal vessels 

 of a turtle, or sea-tortoise, with quicksilver, after injecting the 

 artery and vein with wax, and have shown this instance of the 

 vessels in the oviparous animals every year in my college, and 

 had a drawing made of it two years ago by Dr. Palmer, a copy 

 of which I have sent inclosed, engraved by Donaldson. 



" I likewise, eight years ago, mentioned those vessels in 

 fowls and fishes, which I had seen, but not injected." 



Here then is an assertion about the vessels which I had dis- 

 covered, that is far from being equivocal. For here he affirms, 

 that he really had seen them eight years ago, nay, that he had 

 even mentioned them to others. This letter too was sent im- 

 mediately after he heard that I had laid before the society an 

 account of those vessels in birds and fish.2 It could not there- 

 fore be meant merely to inform the society that, now seeing 

 Mr. H. had discovered the lacteals and lymphatics in birds and 

 fish, he likewise had the pleasure of shewing them that he (Dr. 

 Monro) had discovered them in the turtle. This, I say, could 

 not be his meaning ; for if it was, why did he send his letter 

 so precipitately ? Why did he not send a description of those 

 vessels in the turtle, in order to make his letter worthy of their 

 notice ? And why did he say he had seen them in birds and 



; That note is now printed below, p. 98. 

 2 As he acknowledges, ' State of Facts,' p. 4. 



