68 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. Ill 



prepared to go to the Mediterranean. His lectures 

 to women on Physiology at South Kensington were 

 taken over by Dr. Michael Foster, who had already 

 acted as his substitute in the Fullerian course of 

 1868. But even on this cruise after health he was 

 not altogether free from business. The stores of 

 biscuit at Gibraltar and Malta were infested with a 

 small grub and its cocoons. Complaints to the home 

 authorities were met by the answer that the stores 

 were prepared from the purest materials and sent 

 out perfectly free from the pest. Discontent among 

 the men was growing serious, when he was requested 

 by the Admiralty to investigate the nature of the 

 grub and the best means of preventing its ravages. 

 In the end he found that the biscuits were packed 

 within range of stocks of newly arrived, unpurified 

 cocoa, from which the eggs were blown into the 

 stores while being packed, and there hatched out. 

 Thereafter the packing was done in another place 

 and the complaints ceased. 



Jan. 8, 1872. 



MY DEAR DOHEN It is true enough that I am some- 

 what "erkrankt," though beyond general weariness, 

 incapacity and disgust with things in general, I do not 

 precisely know what is the matter with me. 



Unwillingly, I begin to suspect that I overworked 

 myself last year. Doctors talk seriously to me, and 

 declare that all sorts of wonderful things will happen if 

 I do not take some more efficient rest than I have had 

 for a long time. My wife adds her quota of persuasion 

 and admonition, until I really begin to think I must do 

 something, if only to have peace. 



