320 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XIII 



There have been threatenings of late that the field of 

 battle of Evolution was being transferred to Nephe- 

 lococcygia. 



I see you are inclined to advocate the possibility of 

 considerable " saltus " on the part of Dame Nature in her 

 variations. I always took the same view, much to Mr. 

 Darwin's disgust, and we used often to debate it. 



If you should come across my article in the West- 

 minster (1860) you will find a paragraph on that question 

 near the end. I am writing to Macmillan to send you 

 the volume, — Yours very faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



By the way, have you ever considered this point, that 

 the variations of which breeders avail themselves are 

 exactly those which occur when the previously wild stocks 

 are subjected to exactly the same conditions ? 



The rest of the first haK of the year is not event- 

 ful. As illustrating the sort of communications which 

 constantly came to him, I quote from a letter to Sir 

 J. Donnelly, of January 11 : — 



I had a letter from a fellow yesterday morning who 

 must be a lunatic, to the eifect that he had been reading 

 my essays, thought I was just the man to spend a month 

 with, and was coming down by the five o'clock train, 

 attended by his seven children and his mother-in-law ! 



Frost being over, there was lots of boiling water ready 

 for him, but he did not turn up ! 



Wife and servants expected nothing less than assassina- 

 tion. 



Later he notes with dismay an invitation as a 

 Privy Councillor to a State evening party : — • 



It is at 10.30 P.M., just the time this poor old 

 septuagenarian goes to bed ! 



