Letter to R.K. Greville, LL.D. in reply to Professor Balfour / by John Joseph Griffin.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter to R.K. Greville, LL.D. in reply to Professor Balfour / by John Joseph Griffin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR BALFOUR’S CORRESPONDENCE. 18i7, April 19iA.—“ I shall set about the Text-book immediately, and hope to have all ready before next winter.” 1847, December 11th.—“ I am busy with the work, and I hope to have the whole of ‘Structure’ and ‘Physiology’ ready by the beginning of January. The work must be ready by ^[ay, if it is to sell at all this season. All my pupils want it.” 1848, Apnl V)th.—“ I think that, with the view of securing a sale among my pupils this session, you should get the part containing the Organs of Nutrition and the Nitritii'e Functions^ (which I trust will be completed by the end of the month,) put. up in a paper cover, and sold as a first instalment. You may, if you think right, restrict the sale to my pupils.” 1848, April l\th.—“I could get several hmidred copies of Part I. sold in May and June, if you listened to my proposal to allow the work to come out in that way.” 1848, Apnl 18<A.—“ I still wish that I could get a part of the work for my own pupils by the second week in May.” 1848, April l^th.—“If the book does not appear till June, it is too late for my pupils this year. They must have books in their hands in May, to foUow the Lectures. 1 think Griffin is wi'ong in not allowing me to have a Fart, for my own Pupils only, in May. He wall lose the sale of 200 copies.”—Extract from a Letter from Professor Balfour to the Printer of the Manual. 1848, May Ath.—“ I hope that it is all arranged that the first Part of the book, as far as the end of the Nutritive Organs, w'ill be given to my pupils separately. They are all waiting for it, and the sooner it is ready the better. I told them that they might expect it in ten days. Make arrangements for having it put into covers, and sold here by the booksellers as soon as possible. 1 have a lai’ge class, and the publisher may expect a good sale. He should fix the price a little above the third of the book, so as to ensure the sale of the rest at a low price.”'—Letter from Professor Balfour to the Printer of the Manual. 1848, May Qth.—“ The plan yon propose will suit mj’’ class. I should like to have the first Part out next week. All my pupils are waiting for it.” 1848, June 1th.—“ I do not see that it can do any harm to allow a Part to be issued as far as printed, at the beguining of next w'eek. It may do good to my pupils, and can do no injury to you.” 1848, Oct. 2d.—“I don't think that there will be much loss by imperfect copies. All my pupils who took the first Pail will take the second.”—[Nearly fifty of them did not.—J. J. G.] 1848, Dec. iWi.—“ I am working daily, however, and I shall do all I can to com- lete the work soon. I must have the book complete for my pupils in spring.” I now' come to a letter dated 19th March, 1849, of which Professor Balfour says in his letter to you, (p. 5,) I have made a very unfair use, meaning, I presume, to instance my quotation from this letter, as one of the specimens of my ^'-almost unequalled skill in garbling correspondence.'''' This letter of March 19th contains Professor Balfour’s recollection of what occurred at our interview of 11th Febniary, 1847. It is, therefore, important. 1849, March \^th.—“ I am not a little astonished at the contents of your letter, and at its tone. Li tlm bargain which I made with you verbally, I never contem- plated giving up the copyright of my work for the siun of £200. You recollect surely, that -when you suggested that I should make it a translation of Jussieu’s work I objected, in the same way as Dr. Fleming did, when you con.sulted him about a geological manual. I told you that I would make the work my own Text-Book, and that I would arrange [i<] in the way I thought best for the ymrpose of teaching. I also mentioned that additional w'ood-cuts, besides those of Jussieu, would be required. To all these conditions you agreed; and I remarked that you distinctly stated, that in the event of a second edition, a new bargain w’ould require to be made. Had I con- templated giving up the copyright I would have made a different airangement, and would never have left myself at your mercy in regard to the work which I intended should be my own Text-Book.” The sentence wlucli Dr. Balfour says is twisted and used very unfairly is the one that I have printed in italics. It contains his distinct admission, that at our interview, lield on the 11th February, 1847, to decide on the composition of tlic woik and the terms of payment, he did agree to make the work m.s own