2 REPORT — 1841. 



that one consecutive abstract of the three papers would be preferable, urging 

 brevity and despatch ; he at the same time returned the Geological memoir 

 (as already stated) on or about the 10th of February. 



On the 24.th of February Mr. Nasmyth transmitted to Mr. Phillips an 

 abstract, which he stated to contain the material points of the three papers, 

 abbreviated as much as possible, and requested 200 private copies. Mr. 

 Phillips has preserved no copy, and has no distinct recollection of his reply 

 to this request, but thinks it probable he stated the custom of the Associa- 

 tion in regard to private copies, and referred Mr. Nasmyth to the printer, 

 Mr. R. Taylor, from whom he would have to receive them. 



On the 2nd of April Mr. Nasmyth wrote to Mr. Phillips, expressing sur- 

 prise at having that morning received in type " a small fragment of a sepa- 

 rate report of one of his papers," after having been requested to give the 

 substance of his three papers in one consecutive abstract, and having com- 

 plied with that request. He was informed in reply, that it was by an error 

 that any notice of Mr. Nasmyth's geological paper had been put amongst the 

 papers of that section, beyond a mere reference ; that it should be cancelled ; 

 and that it was intended to give the abstract furnished by Mr. Nasmyth in one 

 continuous article in the proceedings of the Medical Section ; but as the manu- 

 script appeared very long, Mr. Phillips suggested some omissions, which being 

 assented to by Mr. Nasmyth in a letter of the 10th April, the manuscript 

 was sent to the printing-office. The proofs, of which the printer states there 

 were several, passed directly between Mr. Nasmyth and the printing-office, 

 the manuscript and all the proofs, except the last corrected revise, being 

 retained by Mr. Nasmyth. All the other sheets of the volume passed through 

 Mr. Phillips's hands in their progress through the press, as is the usual prac- 

 tice : the exception in this case appears to have been occasioned by Mr. 

 Phillips's temporary absence from York, and the printer's desire to hasten 

 the volume through the press. 



When the proofs were finally corrected, Mr. Nasmyth applied to the 

 printer for 100 private copies, and was informed that, without an order, his 

 request could not be complied with until the volume was published. Mr. 

 Nasmyth then enclosed, or brought to the printing-office, a note from 

 Mr. Phillips to himself, the exact purport of which Mr. Taylor cannot now 

 recall, but which appeared to him at the time to authorize a compliance with 

 Mr. Nasmyth's request: the copies were accordingly delivered. 



On June 10 Professor Owen wrote to Mr. Phillips, calling his attention to 

 the following sentence in the Medical Gazette of the 5th of June : — " In 

 " Mr. Nasmyth's own report given in the Transactions of the British Asso- 

 " elation, which has been printed separately, and of which a copy is now 

 " before us, we find it stated that the ivory is neither more nor less than the 

 " ossified pulp, and that it can in no wise be regarded as an unorganized 

 " body." Mr. Owen denied, on the authority of the contemporaneous reports 

 in the Athenseum and Literary Gazette, that Mr. Nasmyth's papers read at Bir- 

 mingham would justify an abstract containing the statement thus printed in 

 the Medical Gazette, and claimed the theory of the development of teeth, 

 ascribed therein to Mr. Nasmyth, as his own, communicated to the French 

 Institute and publislied in the ' Comptes Rendus ' in the December following 

 the meeting at Birmingham. Mr. Owen concluded by requesting Mr. Phil- 

 lips to suspend the publication, in the volume of the Association's Reports, 

 of the abstract containing the statement in rhe Medical Gazette, until its 

 fidelity should be shown by comparison with the original documents. 



Mr. Phillips expressed, in reply, his surprise at the information received 

 from Mr. Oweii, inasmuch as not having seen any proofs, he was not aware 



