Volume 1

[Report of the Council respecting the publication of A. Nasmyth's papers on the structure of the teeth].

  • British Association for the Advancement of Science. Meeting
Date:
[1841]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report of the Council respecting the publication of A. Nasmyth's papers on the structure of the teeth]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/24 (page 4)
    / 4 On the 18th of July, Mr. Owen addressed the following appeal to the Council, to Mr. Yates, Secretary of the Council; and informed Mr. Phillips that he had taken this step :— “ My DEAR SlR, “ Royal College of Surgeons, July 18, 1840. “ You may feel assured that it is with very great regret that I trespass on your valuable time in respect of a personal matter: if it had been, however, merely personal, I should have refrained ; but the case is one that might be quoted to the detriment of the character of the Scientific Transactions of the British Association, with regard to the laxity with which authors, communi¬ cating their views at the meeting, are afterwards allowed to represent them¬ selves as having so communicated their views, when the volume comes, some months afterwards, to be published. My request is, that the publication of Mr. Nasmyth’s paper in the forthcoming volume be suppressed, or the ori¬ ginal paper, as read at Birmingham in August last, be substituted, on the ground that it has been altered by the author, both in the way of substitution of new matter, and omission of old, in order to include a discovery of mine, published December 16, 1839, and likewise, because the author has made use of the proof of his memoir, as so altered, to found a charge of plagiarism against me, which has been published, anonymously, in the Medical Journals, Lancet, and Medical Gazette. “ In proof of these allegations, I transmit the following :— “ 1. Literary Gazette, containing a verbatim* report of Mr. Nasmyth's Me¬ moir, as read at Birmingham, August 12, 1839. “ 2. ‘ Comptes Rendus,’ containing the abstract of my Memoir, published December 16, 1840f* “ 3. Proof of Mr. Nasmyth’s modified memoir, now standing in type for the forthcoming memoir. “ 4 and 5. Simultaneous attacks on me in the Lancet and Gazette, founded chiefly on a comparison of the privately circulated proof, with my published memoir; such proof being made to represent the Trans¬ actions of the British Association, Vol. VIII. (!) “ 6. My answer. “ The question at issue is, whether Mr. Nasmyth described at Birming¬ ham the cellular ivory of the tooth as being the ossified pulp. “ I have marked with a marginal line the paragraphs in the Literary Gazette, and the modified proof which relate to dental development. “ Prof. Phillips has probably communicated with you on the subject. As injustice will be done to me if the Association sanction the publication of Mr. Nasmyth’s views in the corrected proof, as exponents of what he enun¬ ciated in August last, it seems to be a not unreasonable request that the pub¬ lication of at least that portion of his paper in question be postponed till its real correspondence with his memoir of August last be ascertained. “ He (Mr. N.) has obtained Private Copies of his modified memoir, and * On a reference made by Mr. Yates to the Reporter of the Literary Gazette, the following statement was given by that gentleman in explanation of the use of the word “ verbatim.” “ The Report on the Memoir on Epithelium is a ‘verbatim’ copy of the rough manuscript “ supplied by Mr. Nasmyth. The Report on the Physiology of Teeth is fully and accurately “given in accordance with the manuscript [supplied by Mr. Nasmyth], with the exception of “ those portions referring to diagrams, which would perhaps have more clearly explained the “author's views, but which, without the drawings themselves, I considered could not have “assisted the reader, and with the further exception of any errors of judgement exercised by “ me, such as the above consideration may evidence.” The paragraphs marked by Mr. Owen with a marginal line were in the Report on the Physiology of Teeth. f Mr. Owen’s communication to the Institute was read on the 16th December, and pub¬