144 THE PKESIDENCY OF THE BOYAL SOCIETY 



coals of fire on the poor devil's head by a gushing (not 

 crushing) report. 



So also, when Huxley as referee got into hot water for 

 rejecting a paper and in the usual course retaining it among 

 the E.S. archives, or as the author said ' suppressing ' it, 

 Hooker wrote to him : 



December 28, 1874. 



You could not have answered T. better. I have long 

 thought that the retention of rejected papers was a course 

 that had its awkward side ; it is so often regarded, however 

 unreasonably, as ' suppression ' of the papers, which, added 

 to rejection, piles the horrors. We must be unfettered in, 

 our power of rejection, and we must keep the originals as 

 our pieces justificatives, and I see no middle course but that 

 of offering copies to be made at the author's expense. 



