87 
[Marcou. 
since it had been distributed and exhibited to scientific men just 
as much as the map had been.” 
It is an explanation of principles entirely inaccurate, and an ap- 
plication of which I never was guilty. A geological, like a topo- 
graphical map, is a complete work which always stands by itself. 
The geological map of Vermont can be used, and is used without the 
report, which does not even contain a single paragraph of descrip- 
tion or explanation of it. On the contrary, a part of a volume 
gives only an incomplete portion of a work, and its exhibition and 
distribution to scientific men do not involve as a consequence its 
issue at that date ; it can only be regarded as a private communi- 
cation of an incomplete work. 
This is so true that Mr. C. H. Hitchcock exhibited this same map 
alone, before the Boston Society of Natural History, without read- 
ing or showing any part of his report, being satisfied with the an- 
nouncement “that there is no foundation for what Mr. Emmons 
called his Taconic system (a mixture of the Silurian and Devonian).” 
(Proceed. Boston Soc. Nat. History, Vol. vn, p. 239, 1860.) 
PRIORITY OF THE SUGGESTION, DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION OF 
THE “GEORGIA SLATES.” 
Mr. Hitchcock contests my right of “priority of the proposal of 
the name Georgia slates.” Here are the dates and facts. 
October 17, 1860. — -Mr. Marcou uses for the first time the name 
slates of Georgia in a communication made before the Boston So- 
ciety, in a joint paper with Barrande, and he refers them to the 
Taconic system of Emmons (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. History, Vol. 
vn, p. 375, published November 23 and December 24, 1860). 
July 20, 1861. — Accepting Mr. Hitchcock’s date, as given in his 
late pamphlet of July 20, 1 or August 10, or September, 1861, for 
the printing, distribution and exhibition to scientific men of Part n, 
Vermont report ; it will make no difference for his claim of priority 
of the proposal of the name. Georgia slate; for Mr. Hitchcock’s 
knowledge at that date was a complete blank of everything relat- 
ing to the question ; as well as to the exact position of the locality 
where the primordial fossils have been found, and as to the strati- 
graphic place they ought to occupy in the classification and nomen- 
clature of American geology. A few quotations and explanations 
1 The note added does not “indicate that everything up to that point, including the 
account of the Georgia slate, had been printed by July 20;” but only that at that date 
the author thought proper to add a note to his manuscript, which is very different. 
Printing and adding a note are two things entirely distinct. 
