1882 LETTERS FROM CRANKS 323 



ally on the same parallel, is easily accounted for. 

 Then came the suggestions of little pieces of work 

 that might so easily be undertaken by a man of 

 Huxley's capacity, learning, and energy. Enormous 

 manuscripts were sent him with a request that he 

 would write a careful criticism of them, and arrange 

 for their publication in the proceedings of some 

 learned society or first-rate magazine. One of the 

 most delightful came this year. A doctor in India, 

 having just read John Inglesant, begged Professor 

 Huxley to do for Science what Mr. Shorthouse had 

 done for the Church of England. As for the 

 material difficulties in the way of getting such a 

 book written in the midst of other work, the in- 

 genious doctor suggested the use of a phonograph 

 driven by a gas-engine. The great thoughts dictated 

 into it from the comfort of an armchair, could 

 easily be worked up into novel shape by a colla- 

 borator. 



India, again, provided the following application 

 of 1885, made in all seriousness by a youthful 

 Punjaubee with scientific aspirations, who feared to 

 be forced into the law. After an intimate account 

 of his life, he modestly appeals for a post in some 

 scientific institution, where he may get his food, do 

 experiments three or four hours a day, and learn 

 English. Latterly his mental activity had been very 

 great : " I have been contemplating," he says, " to 

 give a new system of Political Economy to the 

 world. I have questioned, perhaps with success, the 



