168 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. VI 



SOUTH KENSINGTON, 

 April 21, 1875. 



MY DEAR DARWIN The day before yesterday I met 

 Playfair at the club, and he told me that he had heard 

 from Miss Elliott that / was getting up what she called 

 a " Vivisector's Bill," and that Lord Cardwell was very 

 anxious to talk with some of us about the matter. 



So you see that there is no secret about our proceed- 

 ings. I gave him a general idea of what was doing, and 

 he quite confirmed what Lubbock said about the im- 

 possibility of any action being taken in Parliament this 

 session. 



Playfair said he should like very much to know what 

 we proposed doing, and I should think it would be a 

 good thing to take him into consultation. 



On my return I found that Pfliiger had sent me his 

 memoir with a note such as he had sent to you. 



I read it last night, and I am inclined to think that 

 it is a very important piece of work. 



He shows that frogs absolutely deprived of oxygen 

 give off carbonic acid for twenty-five hours, and gives 

 very strong reasons for believing that the evolution of 

 carbonic acid by living matter in general is the result of 

 a process of internal rearrangement of the molecules 

 of the living matter, and not of direct oxidation. 



His speculations about the origin of living matter are 

 the best I have seen yet, so far as I understand them. 

 But he plunges into the depths of the higher chemistry 

 in which I am by no means at home. Only this I can 

 see, that the paper is worth careful study. Ever yours 

 faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



31 ROYAL TERRACE, EDINBURGH, 

 May 19, 1875. 



MY DEAR DARWIN Playfair has sent a copy of his 

 bill to me, and I am sorry to find that its present 



