563 
1812.] Account of the late Mr, William Martin^ F.L,S\ 
of his “ Outlines,” evinces his modesty, 
the mediocrity of iiis pretensions, his 
patience, and the gentleness of his tem¬ 
per, so fully, that it ought to be brought 
forward. The letter is dated Wednesday 
morning only, and it is remarkable, that, 
of more than twenty letters in the pos¬ 
session of Dr. Hull, neither the day of 
the month nor the year is given, and 
the same may be observed with respect 
to the letters addressed to his other cor¬ 
respondents, “I understand I have 
been completely cut up ii) the Antijaco¬ 
bin Review. I have not seen the article, 
but, as the man in the play says on a 
like occasion, ‘ there is never wanting 
some good-natured friend or other to re- 
mit)d one of misfortunes/ They cannot, 
however, think less of the work, in some 
particulars, than I do myself; and authors 
of real rnerit and worth have shared the 
same fate, so I, who pretend to neither, 
have no reason to coniplain. There are 
some principles in the ‘ Outlines’ that 
must, iii time, be adopted, however 
they as novelties may be objected to at 
present.” 
In a subsequent letter to Dr. Hull he 
has thus expressed himself on the same 
subject. “ I find I am totally misin¬ 
formed respecting the criticism in the 
Antijacobin Review—so far from being 
cut up, 1 doubt they have been too free 
of their praise. I send you a few lines 
of their criticism, merely to prove to you 
that my friend was not quite correct in 
his information.” After a very long ac¬ 
count of the work and the principles on 
which it is formed, and only condemning 
the adoption of the term vegetal^ instead 
of which they recommend vcgetive^ they 
conclude as follows: “ From the re¬ 
marks, which we have already made on 
these ‘ Outlines,’ it must be evident that 
Mr. Martin has rendered an important 
service to science and the lovers of geolo-, 
gical studies, and that his concise, yet 
copious and portable, work, is the must 
useful thing of the kintl that has yet been 
published. A book-maker would have 
extended its contents over a 4to volume, 
and then have contrived to have charged 
his readers four times the price for it.”— 
Anti}. Review. May 1809. 
When Mr. M. had printed a part of 
this work, he wrote to Dr. Hull for his 
opinion concerning the adoption of the 
term vegetal. Speaking of the transla¬ 
tion of Fourcroy’s Chemical Philosophy, 
by Desmond, he says, “ I see he pro¬ 
poses to use in all cases, where the 
capability of vegetation is not meant to 
MowiiiLV Mag., No, 221, 
be pointed out, the term vegetal Instead 
of vegetable. Had I seen his work some 
lime hack I think I should have adopted 
his alteration, for vegetal petrifaction 
would certainly be more correct and 
analogous than vegetable petrifaction^ 
&c. The term would also have agreed 
better with some T have ventured to use, 
viz. testal, ossaly squamal, &c. by which I 
mean to point out only simple relation to 
the bodies in question, without reference 
to their substance or nature. We do 
not see, however, that the terms vege¬ 
table or vegetal petrification are at all 
more exceptionable than vegetivc\ for 
the capability of vegetation is as generally 
pointed out by the term vegetive as by 
either of the others, and tlie term vege¬ 
table is very frequently applied to sub¬ 
stances not capable of vegetating.” 
In a short time after the puhlicati<in of 
his “ Outlines,” Mr. IMartin was elected 
a Corresponding Member of the Literary 
and Philosophical Society of Manchester, 
and an Honorary Member of the Geolo¬ 
gical Society of London. 
In the course of the same year he pub¬ 
lished the first volume of “ Petrifioata 
Derbiensia, or Figures and Descriptions 
of Petrifactions collected in Derbyshire;’^ 
and dedicated it by permission to Sir 
Joseph Banks. This volume contains 
the whole of the work which he began to 
publish in numbers, but desisted when 
he had printed the fifth. It has, how¬ 
ever, received many additions and im¬ 
provements. The plates for the illustra¬ 
tion of this work are fifty-two. The 
figures were all drawn by himself. The 
etchings were also entirely executed by 
his own hand, and are sufficiently finish¬ 
ed, though he has been induced to apolo¬ 
gise for their wanting a certain neatness 
and uniformity, on the ground of his not 
being an engraver by profession. In co¬ 
louring the plates he was assisted by his 
wife, whom he had instructed previously 
to his marriage, and she is 'M, this time 
very laudably employed in colouring the 
remaining copies of the work. 
In the description of these extraneous 
fossils, bis aim has been to apply the 
mode of investigation so successfully 
adopted in Botany and Zoology. 
“Hence, says he, instead of giving a 
mere list of names, and these cliieflv of 
species formed from entire genera,or tribes 
of organic bodies,! consider, in the first in¬ 
stance, every genuine or permanent fossil 
species to depend on a single recent one, 
and accordingly have endeavoured to fi>t 
the essential characters by which it may 
4 C hereafiei: 
