1878 LETTER TO HAECKEL 245 



should worry himself about other things with backbones ? 

 Not if I know it. 



Churchill has got over a whole batch of the American 

 edition of the Vertebrata, so I have a respite. Mollusks 

 are far more interesting bugs sweeter while the dinner 

 crayfish hath no parallel for intense and absorbing interest 

 in the three kingdoms of Nature. 



What saith the Scripture? "Go to the ANT, thou 

 sluggard." In other words, study the Invertebrata. 

 Ever yours very faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



[Sketch of a vast winged ant advancing on a midget, 

 and saying, as it looks through a pair of eyeglasses, " Well, 

 really, what an absurd creature ! ! "] 



4 MARLBOROUGH PLACE, LONDON, 

 April 28, 1878. 



MY DEAR HAECKEL Since the receipt of your letter 

 three months ago, I have been making many inquiries 

 about Medusae for you, but I could hear of none and so 

 I have delayed my reply, until I doubt not you have 

 been blaspheming my apparent neglect. 



My " Sammlung " ! ! 1 My dear friend, my cabin on 

 board H.M.S. Rattlesnake was 7 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 

 5 feet 6 inches high. When my bed and my clothes were 

 in it, there was not much room for any collection, except 

 the voluntary one made by some thousands of specimens 

 of Blatta Orientalis, 2 with whose presence I should have 

 been very glad to dispense. 



My Medusas were never published. I have heaps of 

 notes and drawings and half-a-dozen engraved plates. 

 But after the publication of the Oceanic Hydrozoa I was 

 obliged to take to quite other occupations, and all that 

 material is like the "full many a flower, born to blush 

 unseen," of our poet. 



1 Collection. 2 The cockroach. 



