Various Affairs. 333 



will commence the Psychology as soon as this first volume 

 of the Sociology is issued. 



A curious fact turned up the other day which will in- 

 terest or, at any rate, amuse you. I think I told you years 

 ago that the name Youmans, differently spelt Yeomans, is 

 not uncommon in Derbyshire. While staying at Derby a 

 few days on my way to the south, I fulfilled an intention I 

 have long entertained of going over to the village whence 

 our family came Kirk Ireton, in Derbyshire with the view 

 of tracing ancestry farther back than my great-great- 

 grandfather, respecting whom I have information in a law 

 deed. While in the village I observed within a stone's 

 throw of the house in which my grandfather was born a 

 sign with the name Geo. Yeomans on it. This is not all. 

 When I returned here, and was examining the law papers, 

 I found among them plans of some cottages that had be- 

 longed to our family in Kirk Ireton, with the tenant's name 

 written on the plans. One of the tenants' names was Yeo- 

 mans. So you see it is within the bounds of possibility 

 that our families came from the same neighbourhood, per- 

 haps from the same village. 



I write this letter chiefly to intimate that I am back, and 

 shall be glad to hear from you. 



In the course of 1876 it had become clear that the 

 rapid progress of chemical science necessitated a fresh 

 revision of the ever-popular Class-Book of Chemistry ; 

 so Youmans began the work, with Mr. Froebel and 

 Miss Shaw as assistants, and finished it in the course 

 of the next two years. 



It was in this summer of 1876, one of the fiercest 

 seasons even of this land of sweltering heat, that Prof. 

 Huxley and his wife made their visit to the United 

 States. The visit was for recreation, and Huxley gave 

 no formal lectures except in New York, when he point- 



