1849.] WATER-CURE. 347 



and eat immensely, and am never oppressed with my food. 

 I have lost the involuntary twitching of the muscle, and all 

 the fainting feelings, &c — black spots before eyes, &c. Dr. 

 Gully thinks he shall quite cure me in six or nine months 

 more. 



The greatest bore, which I find in the water-cure, is the 

 having been compelled to give up all reading, except the 

 newspapers ; for my daily two and a half hours at the Bar- 

 nacles is fully as much as I can do of anything which occu- 

 pies the mind ; I am consequently terribly behind in all sci- 

 entific books. I have of late been at work at mere species 

 describing, which is much more difficult than I expected, and 

 has much the same sort of interest as a puzzle has ; but I 

 confess I often feel wearied with the work, and cannot help 

 sometimes asking myself what is the good of spending a week 

 or fortnight in ascertaining that certain just perceptible dif- 

 ferences blend together and constitute varieties and not 

 species. As long as I am on anatomy I never feel myself in 

 that disgusting, horrid, cui bono, inquiring, humour. What 

 miserable work, again, it is searching for priority of names. 

 I have just finished two species, which possess seven generic, 

 and twenty- four specific names! My chief comfort is, that ' 

 the work must be some lime done, and I may as well do it, as 

 any one else. 



I have given up my agitation against ;////// and nobis ; my 

 paper is too long to send to you, so you must see it, if you 

 care to do so, on your return. By-the-way, you say in your 

 letter that you care more for my species work than for the 

 Barnacles ; now this is too bad of you, for I declare your t 

 decided approval of my plain Barnacle work over theoretic \ 

 species work, had very great influence in deciding me to go j 

 on with the former, and defer my species paper. . . . 



[The following letter refers to the death of his little 

 daughter, which took place at Malvern on April 24, 1851 :] 



