LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL 269 



lieved that these are the oldest known insects. 

 All this year the editions of the first series of The 

 Pleasures of Life continued to be brought out 

 almost as fast as the publishers could produce 

 them, and his other books were constantly being 

 reissued and translated into fresh languages and 

 dialects. The following letter from Sir John's 

 lifelong friend, the great botanist, Dr. Hooker, 

 is an appreciation of The Senses of Animals : 



The Camp, Sunningdale, 

 Oct. 25th, 1888. 



My dear Lubbock — I had hoped to have finished 

 The Senses of Animals before I wrote to thank you for 

 your thoughtful present. 



I am quite fascinated by it, and thank you most 

 heartily for what is to me a most valuable repertory of 

 facts previously quite unknown to me, and put together 

 in the most instructive way. It was a happy thought 

 of yours to take up the subject, and a happier con- 

 summation to have dealt with it so lucidly. I rejoice 

 in my previous ignorance, in that it has brought me face 

 to face with so much of fascinating interest. — Yours 

 affectionately, J. D. Hooker. 



The event of greatest importance, however, 

 during this year, in which Sir John took active 

 part, is probably that referred to in his diary of 

 December 13 : " The Liberals and Conservatives 

 have both asked me to stand for the London 

 County Council, and I have accepted. I should 

 not have done so if the request had not been 

 practically unanimous, the leaders of all parties 

 having signed it." 



It is possible, even so, that had Sir John 

 foreseen all the additional labour that it was to 

 bring into his already crowded life, he might have 

 declined, but had he done so it is certain that the 



