THE HISTORY OP THIS WORK. IX 



After the matter had been fully gone into, and the 

 MSS. and drawings had been examined, Professor 

 Huxley expressed his willingness to do what he could 

 in the matter, but said he should require some fresh 

 specimens of Ascidia mental// for dissection. These 

 Mr. Norman undertook to procure for him, and this 

 was done through the kind help of Mr. David Robert- 

 son, of Cumbrae, who went specially to Oban to obtain 

 the specimens, which he sent to Huxley.* 



When a little more than four years had passed, the 

 letter here given was received from Professor Huxley 

 by Dr. Embleton. 



" 4, MAKLBOROUGH PLACE,, 



"LONDON, October 12th, 1879. 



"My DEAR SIR, 



" After my return from Newcastle, I forget how many 

 years ago, 1 examined Albany Hancock's MSS. and drawings 

 more carefully than I had before been able to do, and I con- 

 fess that the work of making a presentable volume out of 

 them did not appear to me to promise to be easy, but I was 

 quite prepared to do my best. However, shortly afterwards, 

 in talking over the matter with a Member of the Council of 

 the Ray Society, he assured me that there was not the least 

 chance of the Society undertaking the publication for two 

 years from that date, and from that and various other circum- 

 stances, I felt inclined to doubt whether a still longer time 

 might not elapse before the Society would be in a position to 

 undertake so expensive a work. 



" Under these circumstances, 1 put the papers carefully on 

 one side and waited for events. But, of course, my other 

 occupations Avent on, and I am not at all sure that if the Ray 

 Society offered to publish the work at once I could give the 

 time (not so much for the editing and writing of the Intro- 

 duction, as for the supervision of the execution of the Plates) 

 that would be requisite. 



* See ' The Naturalist of Cumbrae, being the Life of David Robertson ' 

 (1891), by the Rev. T. E. R. Stebbiug, pp. 304-305. 



