To the Editor of the "Norra-Cuina Dairy News."
Sir,—A letter has just reached me, addressed to you by "J. A. J." of Formosa in which complaint is made that in my Bio graphical Dictionary there is no acknowledgement of "a large amount of material collected by Mr. Meyer (ric) and placed at my disposal."
The truth is that Mr. W. F. Mayers, after his father's death, kindly forwarded to me a copy of the "Chinese Readcr's Manual" and a few loose sheets containing some few notes which had evidently been entered in view of a second edition. These notes were very disappointing to me; they might have served as guides to the writer of them who would doubtless have developed them as required and have added to their scanty number. They were valueless to me; but I took care to preserve them, and I shall be pleased to exhibit them to "J. A. J." er to any one else who may be passing through Cambridge.
Of course, my Dictionary with its 2579 entries was to a_ certain extent based upon the biographies, about 800 in all, given by Mayers; but the fact is tha instead of stealing from Mayers, time was fully occupied in correcting the many very serious mistakes of a brilliant pioneer, none of which had been touched in the volume sent to me, and which I believe have actunily been reproduced in a second edition, unknown to me. Out of gratitude for what had been accomplished, I made no allusion to any mistakes, as I well might fave done, in my preface. Let Me now.give a few specimens, taken at random.
1.—Under No. 129, Mayers gives a life of Fan Sui,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.