310 MISCELLANEA. [ch. xv. 



taining portraits of a large number of scientific men in 

 Germany and Holland, which he received as birthday gifts 

 in 1877. 



In the year 1878 my father received a singular mark of 

 recognition in the form of a letter from a stranger, announc- 

 ing that the writer intended to leave to him the reversion of 

 the greater part of his fortune. Mr. Anthony Eich, who 

 desired thus to mark his sense of my father's services to 

 science, was the author of a Dictionary of Roman and Greek 

 Antiquities, said to be the best book of the kind. It has 

 been translated into French, German, and Italian, and has, 

 in English, gone through several editions. Mr. Eich lived 

 a great part of his life in Italy, painting, and collecting 

 books and engravings. He finally settled, many years ago, 

 at Worthing (then a small village), where he was a friend 

 of Byron's Trelawny. My father visited Mr. Eich at Worth- 

 ing, more than once, and gained a cordial liking and re- 

 spect for him. 



Mr. Eich died in April, 1891, having arranged that his 

 bequest * should not lapse in consequence of the predecease 

 of my father. 



In 1879 he received from the Eoyal Academy of Turin 

 the Bressa Prize for the years 1875-78, amounting to the 

 sum of 12,000 francs. He refers to this in a letter to Dr. 

 Dohrn (February 15th, 1880) : 



" Perhaps you saw in the papers that the Turin Society 

 honoured me to an extraordinary degree by awarding me 

 the Bressa Prize. Now it occurred to me that if your 

 station wanted some piece of apparatus, of about the value 

 of 100, 1 should very much like to be allowed to pay for it. 

 Will you be so kind as to keep this in mind, and if any want 

 should occur to you, I would send you a cheque at any time." 



I find from my father's accounts that 100 was presented 

 to the Naples Station. 



Two years before my father's death, and twenty-one 

 years after the publication of his greatest work, a lecture 

 was given (April 9, 1880) at the Eoyal Institution by Mr. 

 Huxley f which was aptly named " The Coming of Age of 

 the Origin of Species." The following characteristic letter, 

 referring to this subject, may fitly close the present chapter. 



* Mr. Eich leaves a single near relative, to whom is bequeathed the life- 

 interest in his property. 



t Published in Science and Culture, p. 310. 



