170 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. VI 



against the bill, and he declares that both Sanderson and 

 Sharpey assented to it. What they were dreaming about 

 I cannot imagine. To say that no man shall experiment 

 except .for purpose of original discovery is about as 

 reasonable as to ordain that no man shall swim unless 

 he means to go from Dover to Calais. 



However the Commission is to be issued, and it is 

 everything to gain time and let the present madness 

 subside a little. I vowed I would never be a member of 

 another Commission if I could help it, but I suppose I 

 shall have to serve on this. 



I am very busy with my lectures, and am nearly half 

 through. I shall not be sorry when they are over, as I 

 have been grinding away now since last October. With 

 kindest regards to Mrs. Darwin, ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



He was duly asked to serve on the Commission. 

 Though his lectures in Edinburgh prevented him from 

 attending till the end of July no difficulty was made 

 over this, as the first meetings of the Commission, 

 which began on June 30, were to be devoted to taking 

 the less controversial evidence. In accepting his 

 nomination he wrote to Mr. Cross (afterwards Lord 

 Cross), at that time Home Secretary : 



If I can be of any service I shall be very glad to act 

 on the Commission, sympathising as I do on the one hand 

 with those who abhor cruelty to animals, and, on 

 the other, with those who abhor the still greater cruelty 

 to man which is involved in any attempt to arrest the 

 progess of physiology and of rational medicine 



The other members of the Commission were Lords 

 Cardwell and Winmarleigh, Mr. W. E. Forster, Sir 



