CHAPTER XV 

 1889 



FROM the middle of June to the middle of September, 

 Huxley was in Switzerland, first at Monte Generoso, then-, 

 when the weather became more settled, at the Maloja. Here, 

 as his letters show, he ' rejuvenated ' to such an extent 

 that Sir Henry Thompson, who was at the Maloja, scoffed 

 at the idea of his ever having had dilated heart. 



MONTE GENEROSO, TESSIN, SUISSE, Jime 25, 1889. 



MY DEAR HOOKER I am quite agreed with the proposed 

 arrangements for the x, and hope I shall show better in the 

 register of attendance next session. 



When I am striding about the hills here I really feel as if 

 my invalidism were a mere piece of malingering. When I am 

 well I can walk up hill and down dale as well as I did twenty 

 years ago. But my margin is abominably narrow, and I am at 

 the mercy of " liver and lights." Sitting up for long and din- 

 ing are questions of margin. 



I do not know if you have been here. We are close on 4000 

 feet up and look straight over the great plain of N. Italy on the 

 one side and to a great hemicycle of mountains, Monte Rosa 

 among them, on the other. I do not know anything more beauti- 

 ful in its way. But the whole time we have been here the 

 weather has been extraordinary. On the average, about two 

 thunderstorms per diem. I am sure that a good meteorologist 

 might study the place with advantage. The barometer has not 

 varied three-twentieths of an inch the whole time, notwith- 

 standing the storms. 



I hear the weather has been bad all over Switzerland, but it 

 is not high and dry enough for me here, and we shall be off to 

 the Maloja on Saturday next, and shall stay there till we return 

 somewhere in September. Collier and Ethel will join us there 

 in August. He is none the worse for his scarlatina. 

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