secondhanded

Finding that I could not get an answer to my request from the trustees of the British Museum, I have come to the conclusion that these gentlemen did a great injustice in selling my collection at public auction, which was done for no other purpose than that of throwing my valuable specimens into the hands of some of their friends, in order to purchase it secondhanded from them.

What I have learned outside of what is written in this secret history regarding town and village government, we shall not here mention as it would be recorded from hearsay or secondhanded.

The well-springs of scientific truth are not so far exhausted that there is nothing left for the engineering teacher, in the way of research, but to work at it secondhanded, perhaps going no further than to corroborate the earlier work undertaken by manufacturers.