MEMOIR OF DR WRIGHT. -*- 167 



it, without putting your system to the test of experiment. 

 Jiut I have no where insinuated, nor wished it to be suppos- 

 ed, that Dr Corbie's practice was not founded on yours; 

 on the contrary, you will find, on examination, that I have 

 more than insinuated, I have distinctly intimated, this fact, 

 by saying that he determined to adopt the system which it 

 (viz. your paper) recommended, because he had already 

 learnt how to appreciate your discrimination and judgment." 1 



Dr Duncan proceeds at considerable length, and 

 in the best possible spirit, to endeavour to convince 

 Dr Wright that he had misconceived the fair im- 

 port of the paper in the Encyclopaedia ; and he con- 

 cludes with the assurance of his readiness to make any 

 farther concession or explanation which their mutual 

 friends might require, and which he could honestly 

 grant, authorizing Dr Wright, in a postscript, to 

 make of the present letter what use he pleased. Dr 

 Wright, however, made no use of it whatever. When 

 he dispatched his remonstrance to the supposed au- 

 thor of Dr Currie's memoir, he appeared to feel that 

 he had discharged a duty which he owed to his own 

 memory ; and from thenceforth he seemed to have 

 made an effort to dismiss the subject for ever from his 

 mind. 



The idea of the present volume, as was noticed at 

 the outset, originated in a desire to collect the scatter- 

 ed papers of Dr Wright, and so accomplish a pur- 

 pose which he had not himself abandoned until with- 

 in a few months of his death. It was afterwards 

 thought desirable to accompany the collected papers 

 with some account of a life which could not fail to be 



