!~ 



2 REMINISCENCES. [ch. iv. 



saw Newport dissect a humble bee, getting out the nervous 

 system with a few cuts of a pair of fine scissors. He used 

 to consider cutting microscopic sections a great feat, and in 

 the last year of his life, with wonderful energy, took the 

 pains to learn to cut sections of roots and leaves. His hand 

 was not steady enough to hold the object to be cut, and he 

 employed a common microtome, in which the pith for holding 

 the object was clamped, and the razor slid on a glass surface. 

 He used to laugh at himself, and at his own skill in section- 

 cutting, at which he would say he was " speechless with ad- 

 miration." On the other hand, he must have had accuracy 

 of eye and power of co-ordinating his movements, since he 

 was a good shot with a gun as a young man, and as a boy 

 was skilful in throwing. He once killed a hare sitting in 

 the flower-garden at Shrewsbury by throwing a marble at it, 

 and, as a man, he killed a cross- beak with a stone. He was 

 so unhappy at having uselessly killed the cross-beak that he 

 "did not mention it for years, and then explained that he 

 should never have thrown at it if he had not felt sure that 

 his old skill had gone from him. 



His beard was full and almost untrimmed, the hair being 

 grey and white, fine rather than coarse, and wavy or frizzled. 

 His moustache was somewhat disfigured by being cut short 

 and square across. He became very bald, having only a 

 fringe of dark hair behind. 



His face was ruddy in colour, and this perhaps made 

 people think him less of an invalid than he was. He wrote 

 to Sir Joseph Hooker (June 13, 1849), " Every one tells me 

 that I look quite blooming and beautiful ; and most think 

 I am shamming, but you have never been one of those." 

 And it must be remembered that at this time he was mis- 

 erably ill, far worse than in later years. His eyes were 

 bluish grey under deep overhanging brows, with thick, 

 bushy projecting e}'ebrows. His high forehead was deeply 

 wrinkled, but otherwise his face was not much marked or 

 lined. His expression showed no signs of the continual 

 discomfort he suffered. 



When he was excited with pleasant talk his whole man- 

 ner was wonderfully bright and animated, and his face 

 shared to the full in the general animation. His laugh was 

 a free and sounding peal, like that of a man who gives him- 

 self sympathetically and with enjoyment to the person and 

 the thing which have amused him. He often used some 

 sort of gesture with his laugh, lifting up his hands or bring- 



