1872 LETTER TO DOHRN 79 



I suspected the love affair you speak of, and thought 

 the young damsel very attractive. I suppose it will come 

 to nothing, even if he be disposed to add his hand to the 

 iron and quinine, in the next present he offers. . . . 

 And, oh my Diogenes, happy in a tub of arthropodous 

 Entwickelungsgeschichte,* despise not beefsteaks, nor wives 

 either. They also are good. 



JERMYN STREET, June 5, 1872. 



MY DEAR DOHRN I have written to the Governor of 

 Ceylon, and enclosed the first half of your letter to me to 

 him as he understands High Dutch. I have told him 

 that the best thing he can do is to write to you at Naples 

 and tell you he will be very happy to see you as soon as 

 you can coma And that if you do come you will give 

 him the best possible advice about his museum, and let 

 him have no rest until he has given you a site for a 

 zoological station. 



I have no doubt you will get a letter from him in 

 three weeks or so. His name is Gregory, and you will 

 find him a good-humoured acute man of the world, with 

 a very great general interest in scientific and artistic 

 matters. Indeed in art I believe he is a considerable 

 connoisseur. 



I am very grieved to hear of your father's serious 

 illness. At his age cerebral attacks are serious, and when 

 we spent so many pleasant hours together at Naples, he 

 seemed to have an endless store of vigour very much 

 like his son Anton. 



What put it into your J-.ead that I had any doubt of 

 your power of work ? I am ready to believe that you 

 are Hydra in the matter of heads and Briareus in the 

 matter of hands. 



.... If you go to Ceylon I shall expect you to come 

 back by way of England. It's the shortest route any- 

 where from India, though it may not look so on the map. 



1 History of Development. 



