1893 COMPLETION OF THE "SPIRULA" MEMOIR 383 



The following letters with reference to the long unfin- 

 ished memoir on ' Spirula ' for the Challenger reports tell 

 their own story. Huxley was very glad to find some com- 

 petent person to finish the work which his illness had in- 

 capacitated him from completing himself. It had been a 

 burden on his conscience ; and now he gladly put all his 

 plates and experience at the disposal of Professor Pelseneer, 

 though he had nothing written and would not write any- 

 thing. He had no wish to claim even joint authorship for 

 the completed paper ; when the question was first raised, 

 he desired merely that it should be stated that such and such 

 drawings were made by him ; but when Professor Pelseneer 

 insisted that both names should appear as joint authors, he 

 consented to this solution of the question. 



HODESLEA, Sept. 17, 1893. 



DEAR MR. MURRAY * If the plates of Spirula could be 

 turned to account a great burthen would be taken off my mind. 



Professor Pelseneer is every way competent to do justice to 

 the subject; and he has just what I needed, namely another 

 specimen to check and complete the work; and besides that, the 

 physical capacity for dissection and close observation, of which 

 I have had nothing left since my long illness. 



Will you be so good as to tell Professor Pelseneer that I 

 shall be glad to place the plates at his disposal and to give him 

 all the explanations I can of the drawings, whenever it may suit 

 his convenience to take up the work? 



Nothing beyond mere fragments remained of the specimen. 

 I am, yours very faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



I return Pelseneer's letter. 



HODESLEA, Sept. 30, 1893. 



DEAR PROFESSOR PELSENEER I send herewith (by this post) 

 a full explanation of the plates of Spirula (including those of 

 which you have unlettered copies). I trust you will not be too 

 much embarrassed by my bad handwriting, which is a plague to 

 myself as well as to other people. 



My hope is that you will be good enough to consider these 

 figures as materials placed in your hands, to be made useful in 

 the memoir on Spirilla, which I trust you will draw up, supply- 

 ing the defects of my work and checking its accuracy. 



* Now K.C.B. ; Director of the " Reports of the Challenger." 



