TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 7 



self) acting as a check upon the publication of an ungarbled epitome of what 

 you had really said. 



" Such is my case, and I leave it in your hands. I am very happy to know 

 that it is by Prof. Owen's instigations that this act of justice is denied me. 

 But I hope by the course I have proposed in this letter to induce you, as the 

 organ of the Association, not to commit an act of injustice which one inter- 

 ested member of its Council would induce it to commit. 



" I shall be ready either to go to York to communicate with you, or to see 

 you here. I need not inform you of the very great inconvenience it will be 

 to me to leave town even for a day at present, and it would be of much con- 

 sequence to me if it could be spared. 



" I remain, Sir, your very obedient servant, 



" Alexander Nasmyth." 



It may be proper here to remark, that when Mr. Nasmyth wrote this letter, 

 Mr. Owen was himself a member of the Council : he ceased to be so in the 

 new Council appointed at Glasgow* ; and he was not present at the only 

 meeting of the former Council, in which the question of Mr. Nasmyth 's 

 paper came under consideration, namely, in September. 



Mr. Nasmyth 's offer to convey his original memoir to York, for Mr. Phil- 

 lips's satisfaction, was declined, as, an appeal having been made to the Coun- 

 cil, the case was removed out of his jurisdiction. 



On the 5th of September Mr. Nasmyth enclosed to Mr. Yates the follow- 

 ing letter, to be laid before the Council at the same time with Mr. Owen's 

 appeal : — 



" To the Council of the British Association. 



"13 A, George Street, Hanover Square, 



" Gentlemen, 5th Sept., 1840. 



" Professor Phillips, the Assistant Secretary to the British Association, 

 having, on a simple application from Mr. Owen, without any authority or 

 investigation on the subject, although I repeatedly offered him all the means 

 and facilities in my power, and even offered to take all the materials and 

 papers connected with my communications to York for his individual satis- 

 faction, at once suppressed, in the volume of the Transactions of the past 

 year, the Avhole of a report of three contributions made by me on three dif- 

 ferent subjects to the last meeting of the British Association ; though one of 

 these had not the sliglitest connexion with the point in which Mr. Owen's 

 application originated ; though all of them had been approved by the Coun- 

 cilf, read and demonstrated at the public meetings of its Sections, and the 

 original papers themselves had remained in the hands of its officers, and been 

 ' reported ' under the direction of Professor Phillips ; and though the abstract, 

 made out at his request, had been, after his inspection, condensed and short- 

 ened at his especial suggestion, gladly inserted by him, corrected in proof 

 under his superintendence, and printed, and communicated to me in a sepa- 

 rate form Avitli his authorization ; — I now respectfully demand from you 

 the restoration of my abstract to its proper place in all the copies of the 

 Transactions hereafter circulated, and that an apology for its omission be 

 instantly circulated and sent to the possessors of the volumes hitherto sold. 

 If Professor Phillips has any cause of complaint against me, I shall instantly 

 be ready to defend myself, if common fairnesss is first shown me, and my 

 privileges restored ; but I protest against his having first, without even the 



• Having been on the Councils of 183S and 1839. 



t Mr. Nasn)yth was in error in supposing that eitlier his original memoirs or his abstract 

 had ever been seen by the Council. 



