448 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS [Chap. XII 



Letter 782 weeks' tour to Jamaica for complete rest, to see the Blue 

 Mountains, and escape the rigour of the early spring. I 

 believe that George will some day be a great scientific swell. 

 The War Office has just offered Leonard a post in the 

 Government Survey at Southampton, and very civilly told 

 him to go down and inspect the place, and accept or not as 

 he liked. So he went down, but has decided that it would 

 not be worth his while to accept, as it would entail his giving 

 up his expedition (on which he had been ordered) to Queens- 

 land, in Australia, to observe the Transit of Venus. 1 Dear 

 old William 2 at Southampton has not been very well, but 

 is now better. He has had too much work — a willing horse 

 is always overworked — and all the arrangements for receiving 

 the British Association there this summer have been thrown 

 on his shoulders. 



But, good Heavens ! what a deal I have written about 

 my sons. I have had some hard work this autumn with 

 the microscope ; but this is over, and I have only to write 

 out the papers for the Linnean Society. 3 We have had a 

 good many visitors ; but none who would have interested 

 you, except perhaps Mrs. Ritchie, the daughter of Thackeray, 

 who is a most amusing and pleasant person. I have not seen 

 Huxley for some time, but my wife heard this morning from 

 Mrs. Huxley, who wrote from her bed, with a bad account of 

 herself and several of her children ; but none, I hope, are at 

 all dangerously ill. Farewell, my kind, good friend. 



Many thanks about the picture, which if I survive you, 

 and this I do not expect, shall be hung in my study as a 

 perpetual memento of you. 



The concluding chapter of the Life and Letters gives some account 

 of the gradual failure in health which was perceptible in the last year of 

 Mr. Darwin's life. He died on April 19th, 1882, in his 74th year. 



1 Major Leonard Darwin, late R.E., served in several scientific expe- 

 ditions, including the Transits of Venus of 1874 and 1882. 



2 Mr. Darwin's eldest son. 



3 (i) " The Action of Carbonate of Ammonia on the Roots of Certain 

 Plants." [Read March 16th, 1882.] Journ. Linn. Soe., Vol. XIX., 

 1882, p. 239. (ii) " The Action of Carbonate of Ammonia on Chlorophyll- 

 bodies." [Read March 6th, 1882.] Ibid., p. 262. 



THE END. 



