8 
TRANSLATION OF MINERAL CONCHOLOGY. 
say. The general principle of translating scientific works from one lan- 
guage into another is utterly foreign to the question, ancl cannot possibly 
be brought to bear upon those publications whose scientific value is vested 
in faithful representations of species, fac similes of which can be at any 
time produced at an enormous reduction of expense below that which 
they have originally cost the author. 
That Agassiz is altogether in error on the subject of the relation in 
which the present Mr. James De Carle Sowerby stands in respect to the 
‘ Mineral Conchology,’ is clear from the following passage, which will be 
found in No. 105. “ To the public the author feels deeply indebted, 
and cannot refrain from declaring his gratitude for the encouragement 
bestowed upon a work commenced by his lamented father, and in the con- 
tinuation of which he himself has incurred so much responsibility.” — - 
Dated Camden Town, July, 1835.* 
As to the numerous additions and corrections in the French edition upon 
which Agassiz seems to plume himself, we cannot give him a great deal 
of credit on this score, when his zeal for science has not induced him to 
procure from England such species as are now well known and readily 
obtained in a more perfect condition than some of the specimens figured 
in the early numbers of Mr. Sowerby’s work. And upon the subject of 
an English edition of the ‘ Poissons Fossiles,’ though, as far as we are 
aware, nothing of the kind is in contemplation, yet if its author really 
have acted with so little prudence as not to have reserved a supply to 
meet the demand that must arise when the work is rendered complete ; 
and never intends, after the issue of his 15th livraison, to resume those 
labours in ancient Ichthyology which have shed so much light upon this 
department of science, and reflected so much lustre on himself ; in that 
case most cordially should we adopt his avowed sentiments, and look up- 
on a cheap English fac-simile of the ‘ Poissons Fossiles,’ as a matter of 
the highest ‘utilite.’ 
*It is hardly necessary to observe that since the publication of the 
above number in 1835, English geologists have been anxiously hoping 
that Mr. J. de C. Sowerby would again proceed with the continuation of 
the ‘ Mineral Conchology.’ 
