338 Dr. Parry's Essay on the Nature, Produce^ Origin, 



Of the last named author it is impossible for me to read the entertaining and 

 instructive volumes, without feeling the deepest regret, that he should have debased 

 ihem by a story of an assassination pretended to have been committed on a manu- 

 facturer of fine cloth in Spain, by order of Lord Stanhope, many years ago Ambassa- 

 dor to that court. The English have not yet learned the trade of assassination. This 

 tale affords a striking proof how much the best minds are capable of being per- 

 verted by being habitually conversant with enormous crimes. Eighteen years ago 

 M. Lasteyrie himself would have been ready to exclaim, in the words of Hazael, 

 *' What ! is thy servant a dog, that he should suspect this great thing ?" 



In my research into the origin of the Merino race, I have largely availed 

 myself of the " Historical and Chronological Deduction of Commerce," by Adam 

 Anderson, and the Treatise on Wool, by Smith; the latter a prolix and garrulous 

 writer, but both containing an immense magazine of important facts, which, upon 

 the whole, are very faithfully stated. From these two collections I have been con- 

 tented to borrow, when unable to recur to the original works. It is on occasions 

 like these that I regret my distance from an University or the Capital; but I 

 have the greatest pleasure in publicly expressing how much that want has been 

 lessened by the free use of the valuable library of my excellent and learned friend 

 Dr. Falconer. 



Since this work was first presented to the Board, I have obtained from Messrs. 

 Jones', opticians, in Holborn, a good apparatus, by means of which I have been 

 able to make very accurate measurements of a great many specimens of wool. 

 The result of t'nese examinations, and of various other observations on the breed 

 which constitutes my flock, I have thought it best to throw into a Supplement, 

 which will be found annexed to the original treatise. 



The subject, however, is still far from being exhausted. In fact, it cannot be 

 said that the experiment is much more than merely begun. In return for the pre- 

 mium, and various other marks of approbation with which the Board has been 

 pleased to honour me, I shall think myself under the strongest obligation to com- 

 municate to them any farther observations which my professional engagements 

 may allow me to make, and which may be worthy of them to receive, 



Bath, Sept. zi, i8o6. 



