1 4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



the ship, I heard nothing of that either until my 

 iv turn to England in the latter end of the year 

 1850, when I found that it was printed and pub- 

 lished, and that a huge packet of separate copies 

 awaited me. "When I hear some of my young 

 friends complain of want of sympathy and encour- 

 agement, I am inclined to think that my naval life 

 was not the least valuable part of my education. 



Three years after my return were occupied by a 

 battle between my scientific friends on the one hand 

 and the Admiralty on the other, as to whether the 

 latter ought, or ought not, to act up to the spirit 

 of a pledge they had given to encourage officers 

 who had done scientific work by contributing to 

 the expense of publishing mine. At last the Ad- 

 miralty, getting tired, I suppose, cut short the dis- 

 cussion by ordering me to join a ship, which thing 

 I declined to do, and as Rastignac, in the Pere 

 Goriot, says to Paris, I said to London " d nous 

 deux" I desired to obtain a Professorship of 

 either Physiology or Comparative Anatomy, and 

 as vacancies occurred I applied, but in vain. .My 

 friend ; Professor Tyndall, and I were candidates 

 at the same time, he for the Chair of Physics and 

 I for that of Natural History in the University of 

 Toronto, which, fortunately, as it turned out, 

 would? not look at either of us. I say fortunately, 

 not from any lack of respect for Toronto, but because 

 I soon made up my mind that London was tin- 

 place for me, and la-nee I have steadily declined 



