A LETTER FROM MR. MAYHEW. 
31 $ 
part to undervalue bis acquirements; but tbe distance wbicb sepa- 
rates us, and bis silence on these matters, rendered me unable to 
appreciate bis learning. That be had seen what I discovered 
without his assistance, I never meant to assert or to deny. That 
he knew that which I learnt myself, I did intend to imply or to 
contradict. He may know much of which I am still unfortunately 
ignorant, and I shall be most happy — -if he could be induced to 
publish the results of his researches — to become his pupil, and 
honour my preceptor for the benefit I may derive from his teaching. 
Let him declare it, and I am not too proud to acknowledge his 
superiority; but I have no mysterious power of fathoming the 
brains of absent individuals, nor are my ears so long that they can 
catch words uttered hundreds of miles from the spot where I exist. 
What is known at Edinburgh, unless it is published, may for 
centuries remain unknown in London ; and unless Mr. Barlow will 
oblige mankind by communicating his knowledge through the 
press, others may, like myself, fall into the error of conceiving him 
to be as ignorant as the inhabitants of the metropolis. 
Mr. Barlow, in self-justification, should not now remain silent. He 
is above the old practice of claiming every discovery that another 
makes, and seeking to depreciate by the hackneyed application of the 
foolish assertion, “that was known before ,” when any thing new is 
pointed out. I am most desirous to believe that he knew all I 
“ hazarded;” but for his own sake it is necessary that he should 
substantiate the fact by adding to the little I have brought forward. 
The subject is not exhausted ; and if, instead of dwelling on such 
common-place matters as the Ligamentum Nuchee, and the yellow 
elastic aponeurosis of the external oblique, he could be induced to 
enlarge upon some of the mysteries now known only to himself, he 
would greatly oblige me, and by no means injure his own reputation. 
The gentleman appears surprised that I should imagine certain 
things had not been“ hitherto observed,” though he admits that no 
allusion to these is to be found in works on anatomy. The surprise 
Mr. Barlow expresses is natural to one whose advance in science has 
long enabled him to dispense with books, and to look upon ordinary 
knowledge with contempt. I am happy Mr. Barlow can assume 
such a position, and am not inclined to dispute or question his 
right to occupy it. It is, nevertheless, a little unkind for the learned 
to sneer at the ignorant. Where I write the world is still rather 
backward; and however much may be familiar to Mr. Barlow, the 
anatomical facts I ventured to allude to have by the people here, 
who call themselves scientific and reside beyond his favoured 
sphere, been honoured with attention, as though something new was 
contained in my statements. The Medical Press, when noticing 
the work in which my paper appeared, have mentioned that paper 
