172 



Notices of Books. 



[July 



Nothing, therefore, it appears to us, could have been more injudici- 

 ous on the part of Dr. Lush, considering- the situation he holds, and 

 the respect which naturally attaches to his opinions, than their publi- 

 cation j without distinctly and unequivocally, at the very outset, limit- 

 ing them to the tract of country with which he is acquainted. Again, 

 admitting, as we do, the limitation of the genus Gossypium to two or 

 three species, and the marked tendency it exhibits to run into varieties, 

 we w r ould deduce the very opposite conclusion, that, namely, which 

 Mr. Bell has drawn, that this very tendency gives us reason to hope for 

 success, which a plant of a more steadfast kind would altogether for- 

 bid, and it certainly seems strange to us, that Dr. Lush has not made 

 more use of his opportunities, to procure varieties suitable to the coun- 

 try he occupies, than his paper seems to indicate. To the fact stated, 

 that the quantity and colour of the fur adhering to the seeds is apt to 

 change, we are inclined to attach considerable importance, when view- 

 ed in connexion with changes of staple, and think it a subject worthy 

 of more attention than has yet been bestowed on it, and hope that 

 those who have opportunities will not neglect to bestow the attention 

 it merits. To the question of Mr. Bell, " why does not Dr. Lush men- 

 tion on what experimental farm he observed the conversion of green- 

 seeded American into black-seeded cotton, and his authority for assum- 

 ing that the black-seeded cotton was in reality produced from green- 

 seeded American ?" — we would answer, objecting in the first place to the 

 style in w 7 hich it is couched, that we think Dr. Lush has supplied most 

 sufficient authority for his statement, when he says / saw it, 



We must now hasten to a conclusion, the importance of the subject 

 having already induced us greatly to exceed our limits. To Mr. Bell 

 we acknowledge our obligations for calling general attention to a sub- 

 ject, in a national point of view of such vast magnitude, and which, un- 

 der the weight of an authority generally considered even on this side of 

 India unquestionable, might have suffered serious injury from the pub- 

 lication of Dr. Lush's memoir ; but, while we thus approve of the mo- 

 tive, we cannot equally commend the style, which all along impressed 

 us with the idea, that Mr, Bell wrote under feelings akin to personal 

 altercation, in place of those more calm and elevated ones, which be- 

 long to the philosophical investigation of a great national question. 

 Much indeed do we regret this departure from the decorum which 

 usually does and always ought to obtain in scientific discussion, 

 where individual interests are not at stake, and the simple elicitation 

 of truth is the object aimed at, because we know the " snappish dogma- 

 tical and overbearing style" of his remarks has tended to diminish the 



