78 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. Ill 



it. I am very sorry that at the last I went off in a 

 hurry without saying " Good-bye " to him, but I desired 

 Lankester to explain, and I am sure he will have 

 sympathised with my anxiety to see Eome. 



I returned, thinking myself very well, but a bad fit of 

 dyspepsia seized me, and I found myself obliged to be 

 very idle and very careful of myself neither of which 

 things are to my taste. But I am right again now, and 

 hope to have no more backslid ings. However, I am 

 afraid I may not be able to attend the Brighton meeting. 

 In which case you will have to pay us a visit, wherever 

 we may be where, we have not yet made up our minds, 

 but it will not be so far as St. Andrews. 



Now for a piece of business. The new Governor of 

 Ceylon is a friend of mine, and is proposing to set up a 

 Natural History Museum in Ceylon. He wants a curator 

 some vigorous fellow with plenty of knowledge and 

 power of organisation who will make use of his great 

 opportunities. He tells me he thinks he can start him 

 with 350 a year (and a house) with possible increase to 

 400. I do not know any one here who would answer 

 the purpose. Can you recommend me any one ? If you 

 can, let me know at once, and don't take so long in 

 writing to me as I have been in writing to you. 



I await the " Prophecies of the Holy Antonius " l 

 anxiously. Like the Jews of old, I come of an unbeliev- 

 ing generation, and need a sign. The bread and the oil, 

 also the chamber in the wall shall not fail the prophet 

 when he comes in August : nor Donner and Blitzes either. 



I leave the rest of the space for the wife. Ever yours, 



T. H. H. 



The following is in reply to a jest of Dr. Dohrn's 

 who was still a bachelor upon a friend's unusual 

 sort of offering to a young lady. 



1 His work on the development of the Arthropoda or Spider family. 



