VISIT TO ITALY. 125 



he regretted that he had not snatched a few more days 

 from the laboratory to bestow on the opportunity he might 

 never have again. To see Italy once more became one of 

 his cherished dreams. Meanv/hile the usual labours were 

 begun again ; the University claimed him as the spring 

 advanced ; a new phase of the Eozoon controversy turned 

 up, in which he gave a temporary triumph to "the Anti- 

 Eozoonists ;" the fresh materials collected at Naples called 

 loudly for arrangement ; and the fourth edition of the 

 '* Mental Physiology " only awaited the new preface. 



My time (he wrote in the middle of May) has been much 

 taken up by foreigners, who have come over to the Exhibition 

 of Scientific Apparatus, which seems to have excited much more 

 attention abroad than here. The Queen came to pay it a visit 

 on Saturday morning, and the Empress of Germany. I followed 

 in the train, and had a general look at what the collection con- 

 tains, which is very wonderful and interesting, but what time I 

 shall get to examine even a small part of it, I cannot divine. 

 Just now I have to digest a new alternative scheme for the 

 B.Sc. examination, and to ascertain the opinion of from twelve 

 to twenty people upon it, and to go into questions between the 

 University and the Medical Corporations, which, after every- 

 thing had been settled, the latter have reopened. And as to 

 home work, I am only gradually preparing (by getting my things 

 into some kind of order) for what I shall take up when my time 

 comes. I have not yet been able to concentrate my thoughts 

 sufficiendy to write the preface to my " Mental Physiology." 



At length the time arrived. After twenty-three years 

 of service, coinciding with the period of the most rapid 

 development of the University, Dr. Carpenter resigned the 

 office of Registrar, his retirement taking effect in the spring 

 of 1879. Honours at home and abroad had flowed in upon 

 him abundantly. In 187 1, his own University of Edinburgh 

 had conferred on him the degree of LL.D. He had more 

 than once served as Vice-President of the Royal Society. 



