[January, 
CORRESPONDENCE, 
AERIAL LOCOMOTION, 
Sir, — In your issue of Odober, 1875, 
you publish a letter from Professor 
Marey in reply to an article by 
Professor Coughtrie entitled “ Petti- 
grew versus Marey”* which requires 
a few words of comment on my part. 
In the article in question Professor 
Coughtrie, as your readers will re- 
member, prefers what many of them 
will regard a charge of plagiarism 
against Professor Marey, and quotes 
in support a series of parallel passages 
and dates which one would naturally 
have expeded Professor Marey would 
either have explained or lefuted, but 
which singularly enough he has not 
done. 
As Professor Marey in his reply 
makes it appear that I have inten- 
tionally or otherwise given a mutilated 
version of the letter addressed by him 
to the French Academy, in which he 
assigns me priority in the discovery 
of the figure-of-8 and wave move- 
ments made by the wing in space, 
you would do me a favour by publish- 
ing that letter in full. In order that 
the reader may have all the fads 
before him I will, with your permission, 
refer to the entire correspondence 
between the French Academy, Pro- 
fessor Marey, and myself. 
(I.) Letter of Reclamation addressed 
by Dr. Pettigrew to the French 
Academy of Sciences. 
“ Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 
41 March 28, 1870. 
“ The Perpetual Secretaries of the 
French Academy. 
“Gentlemen, — Having had my at- 
tention direded to two papers com- 
municated by Professor Marey to the 
Academy of Sciences on the 28th of 
December, 1868, and the 15th of 
March, i86g,f in which he describes 
* Quarterly Journal of Science for 
April, 1875. 
t These communications are printed in 
the “ Comptes Rendus ” under the dates 
specified. 
and puts forth as a new discovery the 
peculiar figure-of-8 movements made 
by the wing of the insed during its 
adion, it has been suggested to me 
that in justice to myself I ought to 
inform the Academy that the figure- 
of-8 theory of wing movements was 
first promulgated by me in a ledure 
delivered at the Royal Institution of 
Great Britain in March, 1867. An 
abstrad of the ledure was translated 
into French and appeared in the 
“Revue des Cours Scientifiques ” of 
2 1st September, 1867, along with two 
other papers — the one by Professor 
Marey, the other by M. Armand 
Angliviel. * * * [Here follow re- 
ferences., &c.] I have taken the liberty 
of submitting a copy of my memoir 
to the Academy in the hope that it 
may graciously consider my claim to 
be regarded as the original discoverer 
of the figure-of-% movements made by 
the wings of inseds, bats, and birds, 
when artificially fixed, and of the 
spiral and undulatory wave tracks 
described by the wings of inseds, 
bats, and birds, when the said inseds, 
bats, and birds are flying at a high 
horizontal speed. 
“ I have only to add that my ledure 
appeared in the “ Proceedings of the 
Royal Institution of Great Britain ” 
under date the 22nd of March, 1867, 
nearly two years before Professor 
Marey’s first communication to the 
“ Comptes Rendus my memoir of 
which the ledure formed a part having 
been read to the Linnean Society in 
less than three months after the 
ledure was published, viz., on the 
6th of June, 1867. — I have the honour 
to remain, &c.” 
(H .) Letter Addressed by Professor 
Marey to Dr. Pettigrew before 
Replying to the Letter of Reclama- 
tion Lodged by Dr. Pettigrew with 
the French Academy. 
“ Paris, April 29, 1870. 
“ Sir and Honoured Colleague, — I 
