1883 ELECTED PRESIDENT OF ROYAL SOCIETY 335 



he has been for the last two or three days. So many of 

 our friends have dropped away in the coxirse of the last 

 two years that I am perhaps morbidly anxious about 

 Spottiswoode, but there is no question that his condition 

 is such as to cause grave anxiety. 



But by the end of the month his fears were 

 realised. Consequently it devolved upon the Council 

 of the Royal Society to elect one of their own body 

 to hold office until the St. Andrew's Day following, 

 when a regular President would be elected at a 

 general meeting of the Society. 



Huxley himself had no wish to stand. He writes to 

 Sir M. Foster on June 27, announcing Spottiswoode's 

 death, which had taken place that morning : 



It is very grievous in all ways. Only the other day 

 he and I were talking of the almost miraculous way in 

 which the x Club had held together without a break for 

 some 18 years, and little did either of us suspect that he 

 would be the first to go. 



A heavy responsibility falls on you in the Royal 

 Society. It strikes me you will have to call another 

 meeting of the Council before the recess for the considera- 

 tion of the question of the Prasidency. It is hateful to 

 talk of these things, but I want you to form some notion 

 of what had best be done as you come up to-morrow. 



is a possibility, but none of the other officers, I 

 think. 



Indeed, he wished to dimmish his official distrac- 

 tions rather than to increase them. His health was 

 unlikely to stand any additional strain, and he longed 

 to devote the. remainder of his working years to his 



