ch. viil] 18421854. 169 



Pray do not think that I was annoyed by your letter : I 

 perceived that you had been thinking with animation, and 

 accordingly expressed yourself strongly, and so I understood 

 it. Forfend me from a man who weighs every expression 

 with Scotch prudence. I heartily wish you all success in 

 your noble problem, and I shall be very curious to have 

 some talk with you and hear your ultimatum." 



He also corresponded with the late Hugh Strickland, a 

 well-known ornithologist, on the need of reform in the prin- 

 ciple of nomenclature. The following extract (1849) gives 

 an idea of my father's view : 



" I feel sure as long as species-mongers have their vanity 

 tickled by seeing their own names appended to a species, 

 because they miserably described it in two or three lines, we 

 shall have the same vast amount of bad work as at present, 

 and which is enough to dishearten any man who is willing 

 to work out any branch with care and time. I find every 

 genus of Cirripedia has half-a-dozen names, and not one 

 careful description of any one species in any one genus. I 

 do not believe that this would have been the case if each 

 man knew that the memory of his own name depended on 

 his doing his work well, and not upon merely appending a 

 name with a few wretched lines indicating only a few promi- 

 nent external characters." 



In 1848 Dr. E. W. Darwin died, and Charles Darwin 

 wrote to Hooker, from Malvern : 



" On the 13th of November, my poor dear father died, and 

 no one who did not know him would believe that a man above 

 eighty-three years old could have retained so tender and af- 

 fectionate a disposition, with all his sagacity unclouded to 

 the last. I was at the time so unAvell, that I was unable to 

 travel, which added to my misery. 



"All this winter I have been bad enough . . . and my 

 nervous system began to be affected, so that my hands 

 trembled, and head was often swimming. I was not able to 

 do anything one day out of three, and was altogether too 

 dispirited to write to you, or to do anything but what I was 

 compelled. I thought I was rapidly going the way of all 

 flesh. Having heard, accidentally, of two persons who had 

 received much benefit from the water-cure, I got Dr. Gully's 

 book, and made further inquiries, and at last started here, 

 with wife, children, and all our servants. We have taken a 

 house for two months, and have been here a fortnight. I 

 am already a little stronger . . . Dr. Gully feels pretty sure 



