1870 THE LONDON SCHOOL BOARD 23 



if it once becomes thoroughly bitten by the military mad 

 dog. 



The " happy family " is flourishing and was afflicted, 

 even over its breakfast, when I gave out the news that 

 you had been ill. 



The wife desires her best remembrances, and we all 

 hope you are better. 



The high pressure under which Huxley worked, 

 and his abundant output, continued undiminished 

 through the autumn and winter. Indeed, he was so 

 busy that he postponed his Lectures to Working Men 

 in London from October to February 1871. On 

 October 3 he lectured in Leicester on " What is to be 

 Learned from a Piece of Coal," a parallel lecture to 

 that of 1868 on "A Piece of Chalk." On the 17th 

 and 24th he lectured at Birmingham on "Extinct 

 Animals intermediate between Reptiles and Birds "- 

 a subject which he had made peculiarly his own by 

 long study ; and on December 29 he was at Bradford, 

 and lectured at the Philosophical Institute upon 

 " The Formation of Coal " (Coll. Ess. viii.). 



He was also busy with two Royal Commissions ; 

 still, at whatever cost of the energy and time due to 

 his own investigations and those additional labours 

 by which he increased his none too abundant income, 

 he felt it his duty, in the interests of his ideal of 

 education, to come forward as a candidate for the 

 newly -instituted School Board for London. This 

 was the practical outcome of the rising interest in 

 education all over the country; on its working, he 



