1886 LETTER TO PROFESSOR PELSENEER 435 



up for a few days at a time to attend necessary 

 meetings. 



One of the few references of this period to bio- 

 logical research is contained in a letter to Professor 

 Pelseneer of Ghent, a student of the Mollusca, who 

 afterwards completed for Huxley the long unfinished 

 monograph on " Spirula ''' for the Challenger Report. 



4 MARLBOROUGH PLACE, 

 Jan. 8, 1886. 



DEAR SIB Accept my best thanks for the present of 

 your publications. As you may imagine, I find that on 

 the cretaceous crustaceans very interesting. It was a rare 

 chance to find the branchiae preserved. 



I am glad to be able to send you a copy of my memoir 

 on the morphology of the Mollusca. It shows signs of 

 age outside, but I beg you to remember that it is 33 

 years old. 



I am rejoiced to think you find it still worth con- 

 sulting. It has always been my intention to return to 

 the subject some day, and to try to justify my old 

 conclusions as I think they may be justified. 



But it is very doubtful whether my intention will 

 now ever be carried into effect I am yours very faith- 

 fully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



Mr. Gladstone's second article appeared in the 

 January number of the Nineteenth Century, to this the 

 following letter refers : 



4 MARLBOROUGH PLACE, N.W., 

 Jan. 21, 1886. 



MY DEAR SKELTON Thanks for your capital bit of 

 chaff. I took a thought and began to mend (as Burns' 

 friend and my prototype (G.O.M.) is not yet recorded to 



