on account of the exceedingly interesting papers which were read and 

 on account of the men of world-wide fame whom I saw and even met 

 after the meeting, as we partook of coffee and cake" in the smoking 

 room. "I was very much surprised at the acrimony and personaHty of 

 the discussions. Nearly every one who spoke called his predecessor all 

 kinds of bad names, couched in rather polite language." It was in these 

 informal gatherings at the coffee table that I had the most enjoyable 

 experiences, having the privilege of meeting the men of highest dis- 

 tinction in English science. This was especially true of the Royal So- 

 ciety, where not only the biggest scientific guns did foregather, but 

 also where the coffee was good, mirabile dictu. 



Huxley closed his lectures on February 17 and, though I continued to 

 work in the laboratory, I moderated my pace, especially as Dr. Glover 

 assured me that I had been working too hard and must relax a little. 

 i therefore accepted more invitations and went out more in the eve- 

 nings. Mr. Charles G. Leland, better known, perhaps, as Hans Breit- 

 mann, was then living in London and, as a fellow Princetonian, he 

 was very hospitable to me. Saturday evening there was a regular salon 

 at his home and I have seldom met a more charming circle of people 

 than used to gather at Mr. Leland's. In one of my letters I wrote: "It 

 is the thing in London to collect all sorts of 'lions' at your house, in 

 order to attract people thither. Mr. Leland is trying desperately hard 

 to make a lion of me, by telling the wildest stories about my thrilling 

 and terrible adventures in the West. So far, I rejoice to say, he doesn't 

 seem to have met with much success." 



On one of those evenings, there were present a couple of very real 

 lions. Professor E. H. Palmer and Captain Burton. Palmer, who was 

 killed by the Bedouins in Egypt, three years later, was then professor 

 of Arabic at Cambridge. When Arabi's revolt against the Khedive broke 

 out in 1882 and the British bombarded Alexandria and invaded Egypt, 

 the Government sent Palmer, who had great influence with the desert 

 tribes, to pacify the Arabs, but the experiment ended fatally. Palmer was 

 a great friend and admirer of Burton's and told me several stories about 

 him. Burton, with Captain Speke, discovered the Central African lakes 

 and the sources of the Nile and had made a famous journey to Mecca, 

 in the disguise of a pilgrim from Cairo. I had read his book on that 

 perilous enterprise and was charmed to see the hero of it in person. His 

 translation of the Arabian Nights had just been made when I saw him. 



While all this mingling with society was an interesting distraction, 

 welcome as a change from hard work, it was only the fringe of my 



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