

XIV PREFACE TO THE 



Reader, than briefly to reply to a few points, 

 which tend to affect, not so much my professional 

 reputation, as my personal character. 



Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. in a pamphlet 

 lately published *, tells his readers that he has 

 ** suspected a Comhmation between Dr. Anderson 

 and Mr. Forsyth." To be suspicious, is certainly 

 not a quality that easily enters into the composition 

 of a cultivated and an honourable mind ; nor 

 ought the serious charge of Combination to be 

 lightly made against men of fair repute. 



I believe," says Mr. Knight to Dr. Anderson, 



that you are actuated [that is, in having recom- 

 mended Mr. Forsyth's Experiments at Kensing- 

 ton] by some motive of private interest, with 

 which the Public are not acquainted [but which, 

 it seems, Mr. Knight was determined should be 

 no longer a secret]. Is Dr. Anderson quite sure, 

 that he is not the concealed Writer, either wholly 

 or in part, of his friend Mr. Forsyth's book, and 

 the intended sharer of his Profits ? And has not 

 Dr. Anderson taken out a patent for a new kind 

 of forcing-house, xvhose excellence his disinterested 

 friend Mr. Forsyth stands forward to attest ?" 



Now considering that no part of the foregoing 



* Intituled, ** Some Doubts relative to the Efficacy of Mr. 

 Forsyth's Plaister in filling up the holes in Trees, &c. ascribed 

 to it by Dr. Anderson and Mr. Forsyth : In a Letter to Dr. 

 Anderson." 



