280 Prof. Sedgwick's Reply to some Statements 



XXVI. — A Reply to two Statements published by the Palceonto- 

 graphical Society, in their volume for 1853 ; one appearing to 

 accuse the University of Cambridge of illiberality in the admi- 

 nistration of its Museum ; the other reflecting on the character 

 of Professor M'Coy. By the Rev. Professor Sedgwick, 

 M.A., F.R.S. &c. 



To the Edito7-s of the Annals of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, 



I VENTURE to request the publication of this Reply in the next 

 number of your Journal, which is not only an excellent vehicle 

 of scientific information, but also one of the guardians of the 

 honour of scientific men. You can have no interest in the fol- 

 lowing statements, except so far as they have a bearing on the 

 cause of truth. 



Some time after I had seen the ' Third Part of the British 

 Fossil Corals,' published by the Palseontographical Society in 

 1852, I wrote to their Honorary Secretary, and collected from his 

 reply, that any communication from myself, in opposition to two 

 statements made by Professor Milne-Edwards and M. Jules 

 Haime (in the Memoir, just mentioned, p. 151), would probably 

 be rejected by the Society, or, at least, published in their next 

 volume, in a form which would not be satisfactory either to 

 Professor M'Coy or myself. I therefore resolved to postpone 

 my Reply till it might appear in the " Third Fasciculus " of the 

 Cambridge Palaeozoic Fossils, which would be published (as I 

 then hoped) in the spring of 1853. 



Meanwhile, during my engagements away from Cambridge, 

 I had a letter from Professor M'Coy, agreeing in substance, and 

 almost word for word, with the one which forms the most im- 

 portant part of this communication. Greatly do I blame myself 

 for not having immediately sent his letter to the press. But I 

 was anxious, at the time, to add some words of vindication for 

 the University of Cambridge ; and having no access to the Pa- 

 lseontographical volumes, or any other books of needful reference, 

 I was compelled to postpone my Reply ; and I thereby failed, 

 unconsciously, in my duty to my friend : for I now know that he 

 did not immediately publish his own vindication, because he 

 thought that he had entrusted it to myself. 



The plates and letter-press of our Third Fasciculus were in 

 progress immediately after the publication of the Second (July 

 1852) ; and Professor M'Coy, who is compelled by his duties at 

 Belfast, to leave Cambridge in the autumn, hoped to complete 



