17O TRAVELS>iJN UPPER 



tf ter. I finish this letter with observing, that not 

 " only M. Pallas, but likewise Messrs. Pennant, 

 " Zimmerman, and all good zoologists are of the 

 " same opinion on the subject. I have the honour 

 « to be, &c." 



Lanazle, June ist, 1788. 



Sonnims Reply to M. Berthout-van-Berchem, t$e. 



Permit me, Sir, to address this note to you, rela-* 

 tive to my memoir on the subject of the gerboise 

 of Egypt, in the same journal in which it has been 

 published *. This memoir seems to have been the 

 sole object of your letter ; and this consideration, 

 the attention which you have paid to it, and the 

 handsome terms in which you have mentioned it, 

 would be reasons sufficiently powerful to induce 

 me to make an attempt to efface certain blemishes 

 which you think are perceptible in it. As the re- 

 searches of naturalists ought to have a tendency 

 toward one and the same centre, toward a common 

 focus, truth, to deviate from that object, in what- 

 ever manner it may be, is to commit a crime. In 

 this view, nothing can be more just, nor at the same 

 time more noble, than to acknowledge and dis- 



* I mentioned before the reason which prevented the insertion 

 of my reply in the Journal ds Physique. 



avow 



