362 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. XIV 



US about him, and was cheerful, even merry at times. 

 As the nurse said, she could not expect him to 

 recover, but he did not look like a dying maa 

 When I asked him how he was, he said, "A mere 

 carcass, which has to be tended by other people." 

 But to the last he looked forward to recovery. 

 One day he told the nurse that the doctors must 

 be wrong about the renal mischief, for if they were 

 right, he ought already to be in a state of coma. 

 This was precisely what they found most astonishing 

 in his case; it seemed as if the mind, the strong 

 nervous organisation, were triumphing over the 

 shattered body. Herein lay one of the chief hopes 

 of ultimate recovery. 



As late as June 26 he wrote, with shaky hand- 

 writing but indomitable spirit, to relieve his old 

 friend from the anxiety he must feel from the 

 newspaper bulletins. 



HODESLEA, EasTBOUKNE, 



June 26, 1895. 



My dear Hooker — The pessimistic reports of my 

 condition which have got into the papers may be giving 

 you unnecessary alarm for the condition of your old 

 comrade. So I send a line to teU you the exact state 

 of affairs. 



There is kidney mischief going on — and it is accom- 

 panied by very distressing attacks of nausea and vomiting, 

 which sometimes last for hours and make life a 

 buiden. 



However, strength keeps up very well considering, 

 and of coiu-se all depends u^jon how the renal business 

 goes. At present I don't feel at all like " sending in my 



