MONTHLY NOTICE^ 



197 



in geological transformations. We read and recorded with 

 pleasure the facts discovered by Agassiz, Charpentier, 

 Venetz, etc. as so many data added to the then existing 

 number, and it was not in any degree with reference to the 

 merit of the respective observers. We were, therefore, the 

 more surprised at receiving a communication from M. Agas- 

 siz, founded upon a dispute between himself and Professor 

 Forbes, of Edinburgh, as to the merit of discovery of the 

 lamellar structure of glaciers. 



There is a dispute, in the first place, arising from various 

 assertions as to the dates of the discovery, which are, virtu- 

 ally, the answer to the question ; but each seems to deny 

 the statements of the other, and the arguments of both, as 

 to these particulars, are equally futile, for that reason. But 

 we cannot pass over a paragraph in M. Agassiz's letter to 

 Professor Forbes (published for distribution), in which the 

 former claims for himself, under any circumstances, the 

 merit of the discovery, on the ground that Professor Forbes 

 had enlisted as a " student under him,'^ without any inten- 

 tion of proceeding further than deriving instruction from 

 M. Agassiz's experience 5 in fact, claiming the merit of the 

 student (so to speak), he being the teacher 1 



W^hat motive could dictate such a claim, we are at a loss 

 to conceive, if it is not that to which we have referred ? — 

 and, whilst we also remonstrate with Professor Forbes on 

 his claiming the merit for himself with that pertinacity 

 which pervades his letter, we cannot but say that, on a fair 

 and impartial review of the circumstances, we are inclined 

 to give him the greater share of the merit of the dis- 

 covery. 



THE EDITOR. 



