244 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP, x 



on the morphology of the Mollusca and Cephalopods 

 brought back by the Challenger, in connection with 

 which he now began the monograph on the rare 

 creature Spirilla, a remarkable piece of work, being 

 based upon the dissections of a single specimen, but 

 destined never to be completed by his hand, though 

 his drawings were actually engraved, and nothing 

 remained but to put a few finishing touches and to 

 write detailed descriptions of the plates. 



Letters to W. K. Parker and Professor Haeckel 

 touch on this part of his work ; the former, indeed, 

 offering a close parallel to a story, obviously of the 

 same period, which the younger Parker tells in his 

 reminiscences, to illustrate the way in which he 

 would be utterly engrossed in a subject for the time 

 being. Jeffery Parker, while demonstrator of biology, 

 came to him with a question about the brain of the 

 codfish at a time when he was deep in the investiga- 

 tion of some invertebrate group. "Codfish 1 ?" he 

 replied, " that's a vertebrate, isn't it 1 Ask me a 

 fortnight hence, and I'll consider it." 



4 MAELBOROITGH PLACE, 

 Sept. 25, 1878. 



MY DEAR PARKER As far as I recollect Ammocastes is 

 a vertebrated animal and I ignore it. 



The paper you refer to was written by my best friend 

 a carefulish kind of man and I am as sure that he 

 saw what he says he saw, as if I had seen it myself. 



But what the fact may mean and whether it is 

 temporary or permanent is thy servant a dog that he 



