1887 TECHNICAL EDUCATION 47 



And to Sir J. Hooker : — 



85 Marina, St. Leonards, 

 Dec. 4, 1887. 



My dear Hooker — x = 8, 6.30. I meant to have 

 written to ask you all to put oft" the x till next Thursday, 

 when I could attend, but I have been so bedevilled I 

 forgot it. I shall ask for a bill of indemnity. 



I was rather used up yesterday, but am picking up. 

 In fact my Manchester journey convinced me that there 

 was more stuft' left than I thought for. I travelled 400 

 miles, and made a speech of fifty minutes in a hot, 

 crowded room, all in about twelve hours, and was none 

 the worse. Manchester, Liverpool, and Newcastle have 

 now gone in for technical education on a grand scale, and 

 the work is practically done. Nunc Dimittis ! 



I hear great things of your speech at the dinner. I 

 wish I could have been there "to hear it. . . . 



Of the two following letters, one refers to the 

 account of Sir J. D. Hooker's work in connection 

 with the award of the Copley medal ; the other, to 

 Hooker himself, touches a botanical problem in which 

 Huxley was interested. 



St. Leonards, Nov. 25, 1887. 



My dear Foster — ... I forget whether in the 

 notice of Hooker's work you showed me there was any 

 allusion made to that remarkable account of the Diatoms 

 in Antarctic ice, to which I once drew special attention, 

 but Heaven knows where ? 



Dyer perhaps may recollect all about the account in 

 the Flora Antarctica, if I mistake not. I have always 

 looked upon Hooker's insight into the importance of these 

 things and their skeletons as a remarkable piece of inquiry 

 — anticipative of subsequent deep sea work. 



