4 REPORT — 1841. 



On the 18tli of July, Mr. Owen addressed tlie following appeal to the 

 Council, to Mr. Yates, Secretary of the Council ; and informed Mr. Phillips 

 that he had taken this step : — 



" My dear Sir, " Royal College of Surgeons, July IS, 1840. 



" You may feel assured that it is with very great regret that I trespass on 

 your valuable time in respect of a personal matter : if it had been, however, 

 merely personal, I should have refrained ; but the case is one that might be 

 quoted to the detriment of the character of the Scientific Transactions of the 

 British Association, with regard to the laxity with which authors, communi- 

 cating their views at the meeting, are afterwards allowed to represent them- 

 selves as having so communicated their views, when the volume comes, some 

 months afterwards, to be published. My request is, that the publication of 

 Mr, Nasmyth's paper in the forthcoming volume be suppressed, or the ori- 

 ginal paper, as read at Birmingham in August last, be substituted, on the 

 ground that it has been altered by the author, both in the way of substitution 

 of new matter, and omission of old, in order to include a discovery of mine, 

 published December 16, 1839, and likewise, because the author has made 

 use of the proof of his memoir, as so altered, to found a charge of plagiarism 

 against me, which has been published, anonymously, in the Medical Journals, 

 Lancet, and Medical Gazette. 



" In proof of these allegations, I transmit the following : — 



" 1 . Literary Gazette, containing a verbatim * report of Mr. Nasmyth's Me- 

 moir, as read at Birmingham, August 12, 1839. 



" 2. ' Comptes Rendus,' containing the abstract of my Memoir, published 

 December 16, 1840t. 



" 3. Proof of Mr. Nasmyth's modified memoir, now standing in type for the 

 forthcoming memoir. 



" 4 and 5. Simultaneous attacks on me in the Lancet and Gazette, founded 

 chiefly on a comparison of the privately circulated jiroof, witii my 

 published memoir ; such proof being made to represent the Trans- 

 actions of the British Association, Vol. VIII. (!) 



" 6. My answer. 



" The question at issue is, whether Mr. Nasmyth described at Birming- 

 ham the cellular ivory of the tooth as being the ossified pulp. 



" I have marked with a marginal line the paragraphs in the Literary Gazette, 

 and the modified proof which relate to dental development, 



" Prof. Phillips has probably communicated with you on the subject. As 

 injustice will be done to me if the Association sanction the publication of 

 Mr. Nasmyth's views in the corrected proof, as exponents of what he enun- 

 ciated in August last, it seems to be a not unreasonable request that the pub- 

 lication of at least that portion of his paper in question be postponed till its 

 real correspondence with his memoir of August last be ascertained. 



" He (Mr. N.) has obtained Private Copies of his modified memoir, and 



* On a reference made by Mr. Yates to the Reporter of the Literary Gazette, the following 

 statement was given by that gentleman in explanation of the use of the word "verbatim." 



" The Report on the Memoir on Epithelium is a ' verbatim' copy of the rough manuscript 

 " supplied by Mr. Nasmyth. The Report on the Pliysiology of Teeth is fully and accurately 

 "given in accordance with the manuscript [supplied by Mr. Nasmyth], with the exception of 

 " those portions referring to diagrams, which would perhaps have more clearly explained the 

 "author's views, but wliich, without the drawings themselves, I considered could not have 

 "assisted the reader, and with the further exception of any eirors of judgement exercised by 

 " me, such as the above consideration may evidence." The paragraphs marked by Mr. Owen 

 with a marginal line were in the Report on the Physiology of Teeth. 



t Mr. Owen's communication to the Institute was read on the ICth December, and pub- 

 lished in the ' Comptes Rendus' on the 23rd of Decen bar. 



