CHAPTER XXXVII 



LOSS AND GAIN 



The one anodyne for loss and sorrow lay in the remedy he 

 prescribed for others — application to work, especially official 

 work with its impersonal necessities. Kew, single-handed, was 

 growing an intolerable burden ; intolerable, also, as has been 

 recounted, the immobility of his official superiors ; the pros- 

 pect of a new official 'row' used up the last of his righting 

 spirit. In all this ' the Koyal Society is my " great con- 

 solation " — everything there is smooth and pleasant so far.' 

 (To C. D., February 24, 1875.) 



Success in this struggle, with the appointment of an Assis- 

 tant Director in June 1875, brought relief ; but the strain 

 told. Months before, the new labours brought by the Presi- 

 dency of the Royal Society made him long for the ' peace and 

 quiet and sound sleep ' of a week-end at Down. Now with 

 his ' arrears of work pressing and Bentham craving for Gen. 

 Plant.,' he could not break off till after the Royal Society 

 soiree on April 16, when he joined his eldest son and daughter 

 at Algiers for a month. Moreover all through the year from 

 February to September he was troubled with headaches and 

 dyspepsia, varied by attacks of lumbago and bronchitis, ' one 

 off, and t'other on,' and on October 11 reported himself to 

 Huxley (who was still feeling the effects of his recent break- 

 down) as well again after a horrid bout of rheumatism and ear 

 trouble ; he adds : ' And if I did not get as hipped of a morn- 

 ing as a Huxley, I should be all right.' 



As he wrote afterwards to Darwin (March 15, 1879) : 



I cannot but think that a little public duty is an excellent 

 thing for any man who has health, energy, and acquirements 



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