312 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XII 



With our united kind regards to Mr. May and yourself 

 Ever yours very faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



Perhaps if he had been able each year to carry 

 out the wish expressed in the following letter, which 

 covered an introduction to Dr. Tyndall at his house 

 on the Bel Alp, the breakdown of 1883 might have 

 been averted. 



4 MABLBOEOUGH PLACE, LONDON, N.W. 

 July 5 (1881 ?) 



MY DEAR SKELTON It is a great deal more than I would 

 say for everybody, but I am sure Tyndall will be very 

 much obliged to me for making you known to him ; and 

 if you, insignificant male creature, how very much more 

 for the opportunity of knowing Mrs. Skelton ! 



For which last pretty speech I hope the lady will 

 make a prettier curtsey. So go boldly across the Aletsch, 

 and if they have a knocker (which I doubt), knock and it 

 shall be opened unto you. 



I wish I were going to be there too ; but Royal Com- 

 missions are a kind of endemic in my constitution, and I 

 have a very bad one just now. 1 



With kind remembrances to Mrs. Skelton Ever yours 

 very faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



The ecclesiastical sound of his new title of Dean 

 of the College of Science afforded him a good deal of 

 amusement. He writes from Grasmere, where he had 

 joined his family for the summer vacation : 



Aug. 18, 1881. 



MY DEAR DONNELLY I am astonished that you don't 

 know that a letter to a Dean ought to be addressed " The 



1 The Medical Acts Commission, 1881-2. 



