INTRODUCTION. 1 9 



struggle that he finally refused, his love for his own University 

 in the end overcoming the many inducements to leave; he 

 elected to stay where he was, trusting to the future opening 

 up for him some suitable position. In this decision he was 

 undoubtedly influenced by the consideration that Cambridge, 

 besides being the centre of his old friendships, had become as it 

 were a second home for his own family. By the appointment of 

 Lord Rayleigh to the chair of Experimental Physics his sister 

 Lady Rayleigh had become a resident, his sister Mrs Sidgwick had 

 lived there now for some years, and his brother Gerald generally 

 spent the summer there; their presence made Cambridge 

 doubly dear to him. 



At the close of the Michaelmas term, with feelings of relief 

 at having completed his Comparative Embryology, the prepara- 

 tion of the second volume of which had led to almost 

 incessant labour during the preceding year, he started to 

 spend the Christmas vacation with his friend Kleinenberg at 

 Messina. Stopping at Naples on his way thither he found his 

 pupil Caldwell, who had been sent to occupy the University 

 table at the Stazione Zoologica, lying ill at Capri, with what 

 proved to be typhoid fever. The patient was alone, without 

 any friend to tend him, and his mother who had been sent for 

 had not yet arrived. Accordingly Balfour (with the kindness 

 all forgetful of himself which was his mark all his life 

 through) stayed on his journey to nurse the sick man until 

 the mother came. He then went on to Messina, and there 

 seemed to be in good health, amusing. himself with the ascent 

 of Etna. Yet in January, soon after his return home, he com- 

 plained of being unwell, and in due time distinct symptoms of 

 typhoid fever made their appearance. The attack at first pro- 

 mised to be severe, but happily the crisis was soon safely passed 

 and the convalescence was satisfactory. 



While yet on his sick bed, a last attempt was made to 

 induce him to accept the Edinburgh offer, and for the last time 

 he refused. These repeated offers, and the fact that the dangers 

 of his grave illness had led the University vividly to realize 

 how much they would lose if Balfour were taken away from 

 them, encouraged his friends to make a renewed effort to gain 

 for him some adequate position in the University. This time 



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