I 



CUVIER CRITICISED 427 



What then, says the critic, of the sloth ? What structural 

 distinction between herbivorous and carnivorous bears ? The 

 principle, * valuable enough in physiology, is utterly insuf- 

 ficient as an instrument of morphological research.* Falconer 

 attacked him in the June number. Huxley replied in July. 



[June ?], 1856. 



Dear Huxley, — I have been dissipating the disconsola- 

 tion of my solitude (rather fine that) by reading old Quarter- 

 lies as I nutrify and assimilate (better still) and find in xli. 

 313 a passage that will amuse you and rile Falconer — ' Under 

 the influence of this delusion " the necessary conditions of 

 existence " the deservedly celebrated Cuvier is found asserting 

 that any one who observes only the prints of a cloven hoof, 

 etc., etc. — it is worth your reading. 



Ever yours, 



J. D. Hooker. 



In the letters next given, a masculine view of housewife 

 philosophy blends with consideration for a ' kitchen revolu- 

 tion ' which postponed a visit to the Huxleys. Mrs. Huxley, 

 be it remembered, was for a long time something of an invalid. 



Kew : Sunday [Nov. 1859]. 



Dear Huxley, — My wife and I are going to arrange with 

 Mrs. Huxley about our going to you on Wednesday week, 

 anent which we abjure the dinner. It is all very well for us 

 (you and I) to think and say what we please about it, but 

 even the most modified dinners are sources of disquiets in- 

 numerable to ladies who are not well known to one another. 

 I know from experience how it worritted my wife when she 

 was in poor health, to have to provide for only one or two 

 people whom she did not know ; it generally knocked her up 

 for the next day and she often knocked up before the evening 

 was over. They will be anxious about matters that we care 

 nothing about, let them go ever so far wrong ; and about 

 matters that cannot go wrong except by miracle, but then 

 you see they do believe in more miracles than we do and 

 that's the philosophy of it. 



Now, as Hooker merely dated his letters ' Kew ' or * Kew 

 Gardens,' Mrs. Huxley had no address at which to write to 



