APPENDIX. 101 



wish to avoid it ; I therefore still hope that this dispute may 

 be settled in a more easy manner. You must, I think, be now 

 convinced, that in claiming these discoveries you have injured 

 me, and cannot be at a loss to know what might be expected 

 from you on such an occasion. But if instead of doing me 

 that justice which might be expected from a man of candour, 

 you treat this letter likewise with silence, then justice to my- 

 self requires that I should no longer delay producing such 

 proofs as I possess of your having no right to these discoveries, 

 and showing them to the very respectable Society to which I 

 have promised them ; or to such physicians, surgeons, &c. as 

 may have heard of your claim ; without regretting much that 

 those measures which I take to maintain my right, may per- 

 haps affect sensibly the character of a man, who having first 

 injured me and afterwards had his error pointed out to him, 

 was incapable of candidly acknowledging it. I am, sir, &c. 



(Dated) Sept. 9, 1769. 



In answer to this letter, he sent me one dated September 

 30, in which, instead of answering my questions, he evades 

 them, concludes as vaguely as in his former; and when he 

 speaks of his assertions read before the Royal Society, alters 

 its sense, qualifying the alteration with " to the best of his re- 

 collection," denies he was mistaken in claiming these dis- 

 coveries, and what is still more remarkable, accuses me of 

 having made conclusions injurious to him, "by arguments, 

 weak, inconclusive, not real, but feigned ." 



It was evident, from such a letter, that he would not embrace 

 the opportunity I offered him, and avoid a dispute, by ac- 

 knowledging his mistake, and retracting his claim. I there- 

 fore no longer hesitated to print the proofs I had collected of 

 his not having anticipated me ; and though I had once intended 

 to make some remarks on his letter of the 8th of June, as is 

 mentioned above, yet I afterwards determined to omit these, 

 since the testimonies of his pupils alone sufficiently proved that 

 he had no right to those discoveries. By these means I re- 

 duced the publication to half a sheet of paper : in which I first 

 gave an account of his claim made, by saying " he had seen 

 those vessels eight years ago ;". then I mentioned, as arguments 

 against its validity, that I had myself heard him since that time 

 declare, " he could not find those vessels," and that, besides, I 



