TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 11 



of the Council was held on the 29th of March, and the following Resolution 

 adopted : — 



" The Council having for the first time had submitted to them a copy of a 

 " document, (being a note at page 3 of a printed letter, dated March 20, 

 " 1841, signed ' Alexander Nasmyth,' and addressed to the members of the 

 " Council of the British Association,) which document they have reason to 

 " believe has not been seen by the Committee, together with other evidence 

 " which they conceive to be new, and to bear upon the subject matter of the in- 

 " quiry referred to them on the 15th of September, 1840, request the renewed 

 " assistance of the Committee on this difficult question ; and as the above new 

 " document purports to have proceeded from the Geological Section, the 

 " Council would request the President and Vice-Presidents of that Section to 

 " assist the Committee in forming their judgement and making their report." 



The Council requested Mr. Yates to acquaint Mr. Nasmyth of this resolu- 

 tion ; and as it appeared from his printed letter that he entertained some er- 

 roneous views with regard to the conduct and proceedings of the Council, they 

 also directed Mr. Yates to afford liini such explanations in reply as they hoped 

 might remove his misconceptions ; and furthei", to state expressly, that if they 

 were put in possession of a copy of the original memoirs, duly authenticated, 

 they might find it proper to publish an abstract of them in a future volume ; 

 this was accordingly done in a letter to Mr. Nasmyth, read and approved by the 

 Council. 



On the 28th of May the Council assembled to receive the report of the 

 Committee appointed by the preceding resolution (of the 29th March). Af- 

 ter a recapitulation of the proceedings on the two former occasions, the Re- 

 port proceeded as follows : viz. — 



" The Council have since thought proper to request the same Committee, 

 to whom they have added the President* and Vice Presidents f of the Geo- 

 logical Section of the Association at Birmingham, to inquire into the author- 

 ity supposed to be given to Mr. Nasmyth's abstract by a printed document, 

 in the shape of a printer's revise, purporting to be the report, by the Editorial 

 Secretary, of another paper of Mr. Nasmyth's read to the Geological Section, 

 at the same meeting of the Association, which revise, he alleges, contains the 

 following passage, viz, ' the ivory is neither more nor less than the ossified 

 pulp-! and on which he founds an argument that an affirmation to that effect 

 had been distinctly made by himself in that paper. 



" The present Committee, to whom this question has been specially referred, 

 have procured, through the kindness of Colonel Sabine, one of the General 

 Secretaries, a certified copy;}; of the original manuscript report referred to 

 by Mr. Nasmyth, and which it appears was drawn up immediately after the 

 paper had been received, by Dr. Lloyd, one of the Secretaries of the Geolo- 

 gical Section. It is as follows :" 



(It is the subjoined document marked B.) 



" On comparing this manuscript copy with the printed revise, as quoted by 

 Mr. Nasmyth at p. 3 of his printed letter to the Council, it appears that seve- 

 ral alterations have been made in the original in its progress to that stage of 

 revision in which Mr. Nasmyth now produces it ; and in particular, that the 

 expression quoted by him in italics, as especially corroborating the fidelity of 

 his abstract, is not contained in it. 



" Your Committee then agreed to send the following communication to Mr. 

 Nasmyth through their Secretary : — 



* Dr. Buckland. f Leonard Horner, Esq., Charles Lyell, Esq. 



J A copy, certified by Dr. Lloyd, of the rough copy preserved by himself of the original 

 manuscript. 



