1874 ANIMAL AUTOMATISM 131 



incumbent of that office. It is well for me that I expect 

 nothing from Oxford or Cambridge, having burned my 

 ships so far as they were concerned long ago. 



I sent your note on to Knowles as soon as it arrived, 

 but I have heard nothing from him. I wrote to him 

 again to-night to say that he had better let me see it in 

 proof if he is going to print it I am right glad you 

 find anything worth reading again in my old papers. I 

 stand by the view I took of the origin of species now as 

 much as ever. 



Shall I not see the address ? It is tantalising to hear 

 of your progress and not to know what is in it. 



I am thinking of taking Development for the subject 

 of my evening lecture, 1 the concrete facts made out in 

 the last thirty years without reference to Evolution. If 

 people see that it is Evolution, that is Nature's fault, and 

 not mine. 



We are all flourishing, and send our love. Ever 

 yours faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



The paper on Animal Automatism is in effect an 

 enlargement of a short paper read before the Meta- 

 physical Society in 1871, under the title of " Has a 

 Frog a Soul 1 " It begins with a vindication of Des- 

 cartes as a great physiologist, doing for the physiology 

 of motion and sensation that which Harvey had done 

 for the circulation of the blood. A series of proposi- 

 tions which constitute the foundation and essence of 

 the modern physiology of the nervous system are 

 fully expressed and illustrated in the writings of 

 Descartes. Modern physiological research, which 

 has shown that many apparently purposive acts are 



1 I.e. at the British Association; he actually took "Animals 

 as Automata." 



