From Thomas Beddoes to Joseph Banks   3 January 1791

Shifnal Shropshire

Jany 3rd 1791

Sir

I presume so much upon your politeness & attention to science that I shall take the liberty of transmitting to you in the course of the present week a paper, in which I have endeavoured from my observations made during the course of several mineralogical excursions compared with those of others, to investigate the origins & assign the proper stations of granite in the mineral kingdom. Should the general views of particular facts render it worthy of a place in the Philosophical Transactions, may I beg the favour of you to give orders that some copies be printed separate & transmitted to me at Oxford.

Two years ago I gave you reason to expect a paper on some very curious effects of long continued heat; and as I have not been able to perform my promise, permit me, Sir, to mention the impediments that have arisen in my way. The laboratory at Oxford has been for a considerable time past undergoing a thorough repair, which I hope will render it one of the best in Europe; in the mean time, I have been prevented from making any experiments, & before I c^d present that paper to the Royal Society, several analyses were necessary. I have likewise from time to time had opportunities to extend my first observations; & the desire of making what I had to offer less imperfect has concurred to produce some of this delay: two or three drawings were necessary to the illustration of part of the description, & I was obliged to have them executed by different hands before they represented the object with sufficient exactness. I shall, however, be certainly able to finish it in a couple of months, & then I will convey it to you, in hopes that you will communicate it to the Society.

I am, Sir

With great respect

Your obedient servant

Thomas Beddoes