INTRODUCTION. xh

Edinburgh, and commented upon as a genuine performance of that eminent man, is not a work of Dr. Cullen, who never wrote or corrected one fyllable of it; that every word of that paper was written by Dr. James Anderfon, being the fubftance of very imper- feét notes taken by him, while yet a boy of little more than fifteen years of age, from the extempore difcourfes of Dr. Cullen, which was his firft attempt to take notes of any kind. Confcious of the extreme inaccuracy of thefe notes, the pupil took care not only to mark the particular in the very title, by the words, errores{unt “ difcipuli,” but alfo to ftate it more clearly in a fhort advertifement

prefixed,(all of which have been fuppreffed in the printed copy)

warni#f every perfon into whofe hands it might fall, not ta fuffer

the errors of the pupil to injure the character of the preceptor 3

- but he farthér took care never fince to allow the MS. to be out

of his poffeflion, unlefs to two of Dr. Cullen’s fons alone, to whom he lent it under the ftriéteft injunétions, not to allow it to be feen or copied by any perfon whatever, Sir John Sinclair having heard that this MS. was in the poffeffion of Mr, Cullen (now Lord Cullen) applied to that gentleman, through various channels, for permiflion to take. a copy of it, which he pofitively refufed to do, or to giye his confent to its being publifhed, could a copy of it be even obtained. Sir John afterwards, however, found means(which it is fuppofed he does not defire to have publicly developed) to obtain a copy of that MS. and imme- diately publifhed it, to the no fmall aftonifhment of Mr. Cullen, as well as to that of the owner of the MS. No fooner did Mr. Anderfon fee a copy of that publication, and came to an expla- nation with Mr. Cullen on the fubject, than he ftated his claim to the MS. ina letter to Sir John Sinclair, and foon after to the board of agriculture alfo, requiring that a farther publication of it might be{topped, as being his own private property; and alfo,

with a view to do juftice to the character of Dr. Cullen, requefted

“x