The International Scientific Series. 279 



him, but he left a note for me saying that he had seen Clif- 

 ford and Dyer. I had to get part of my circular on the 

 series printed in London and had the names added in Edin- 

 burgh. They are weighty, as you see, and the little docu- 

 ment carries everything before it. Hooker suggested Dyer 

 to Spencer as one of the most promising young botanists 

 of the age, and he is really a splendid fellow. Clifford is 

 also immensely strong. Huxley says he is the only man in 

 England who can do the work he is engaged for. Edward 

 Smith is the authority on diet. Tylor is great on primitive 

 man — greater than Lubbock — but he may not be able to 

 leave his present publisher. I have other subjects and 

 other men in anticipation, and shall stay till the thing is 

 quite crystallized. Spencer said : " Be deliberate, and don't 

 go till all is closed up." He enjoys my success. But I 

 must stop, for I am completely used up with this wretched 

 cold. 



The circular inclosed with the foregoing letter 

 said : 



The attention of English scientific writers is asked to a 

 project of niternational publication which has both public 

 and personal claims to their consideration. It is in con- 

 templation to prepare a series of monographs or elaborate 

 essays on selected scientific topics, and in a form suited for 

 wide circulation. The general aim of the series will be to 

 give authentic, popular expression to the latest advances of 

 thought on the leading subjects of progressive inquiry. 

 The recent and more important steps of physical investiga- 

 tion will come within its scope, and those interpretations of 

 Nature which have undergone marked revision within a re- 

 cent period. Yet it is desired to give especial prominence 

 to those branches of biological, psychological, and social 

 science which help to a better understanding of human 

 nature and the economy of human life. 



