1 859J MR - HUXLEY'S ADHERENCE. 23 I 



Sir J. Herschel, to whom I sent a copy, is going to read my 

 book. He says he leans to the side opposed to me. If you 

 should meet him after he has read me, pray find out what he 

 thinks, for, of course, he will not write ; and I should ex- 

 cessively like to hear whether I produce any effect on such a 

 mind. 



T. H. Huxley to C. Darwin. 



Jermyn Street, W., 



November 23rd, 1859. 



My DEAR DARWIN, I finished your book yesterday, a 

 lucky examination having furnished me with a few hours of 

 continuous leisure. 



Since I read Von Bar's * essays, nine years ago, no work on 

 Natural History Science I have met with has made so great 

 an impression upon me, and I do most heartily thank you for 

 the great store of new views you have given me. Nothing, I 

 think, can be better than the tone of the book, it impresses 

 those who know nothing about the subject. As for your 

 doctrine, I am prepared to go to the stake, if requisite, in sup- 

 port of Chapter IX., and most parts of Chapters X., XL, XII., 

 and Chapter XIII. contains much that is most admirable, 

 but on one or two points I enter a caveat until I can see 

 further into all sides of the question. 



As to the first four chapters, I agree thoroughly and fully 

 with all the principles laid down in them. I think you have 

 demonstrated a true cause for the production of species, and 

 have thrown the onus probandi, that species did not arise in 

 the way you suppose, on your adversaries. 



But I feel that I have not yet by any means fully 

 realized the bearings of those most remarkable and original 



* Karl Ernst von Baer, b. 1792, my. He practically founded the 

 d. at Dorpat 1876 one of the most modern science of embryology. 

 distinguished biologists of the cent- 



