1881 INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CONGRESS 309 



at Sevenoaks] on Saturday afternoon, and get out of the 

 way of everything except the College of Surgeons' Soiree, 

 till Tuesday. Commend me for my prudence. 



On the 5th he was busy all day with Government 

 Committees, only returning to correct proofs of his 

 address before the social functions of the evening. 

 Next morning he writes : 



I have been toiling at my address this morning. It 

 is all printed, but I must turn it inside out, and make a 

 speech of it if I am to make any impression on the 

 audience in St. James' HalL Confound all such 

 bobberies. 



August 9. I got through my address to-day as well 

 as I ever did anything. There was a large audience, as 

 it was the final meeting of the Congress, and to my 

 surprise I found myself in excellent voice and vigour. So 

 there is life in the old dog yet. But I am greatly relieved 

 it is over, as I have been getting rather shaky. 



When the Medical Congress was over, he joined 

 his family at Grasmere for the rest of August. In 

 September he attended the British Association at 

 York, where he read a paper on the "Kise and 

 Progress of Paleontology," and ended the month with 

 fishery business at Aberystwith and Carmarthen. 



The above paper is to be found in Collected Essays, 

 iv. p. 24. In it he concludes an historical survey of 

 the views held about fossils by a comparison of the 

 opposite hypothesis upon which the vast store of 

 recently accumulated facts may be interpreted ; and 

 declaring for the hypothesis of evolution, repeats 

 the remarkable words of the " Coming of Age of the 



