256 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



ment. Quiet as his winter was, it was not quiet enough, 

 and he began again to suffer from such excruciating pains 

 in the head, that he was forced to abandon almost wholly 

 the exercise of writing. He discovered it possible, 

 although very irksome, to dictate, but having found a 

 rapid and sympathetic amanuensis, he reconciled himself 

 to this mode of composition. It even exaggerated his 

 flowing and confidential style, the characteristics of which 

 are seen, almost to excess, in the pages of Tenby. 



The year 1855 was not marked by any incidents of a 

 very unique character. The manner of life of the Gosses 

 remained almost unchanged, my father merely pushing 

 further and further along the various paths of scientific 

 investigation of which he held the threads. In February 

 was published Abraham and his Children, a volume on 

 religious education, the most ambitious work which Emily 

 Gosse had hitherto produced ; and Philip Gosse began, at 

 the same time, a book called The Pond-Raker, which was 

 to be a popular introduction to the study of the Rotifera. 

 It proved difficult to popularize so abstruse a subject, and 

 The Po7zd-Raker, in spite of enthusiastic encouragement 

 from Charles Kingsley, soon quitted his pond and dropped 

 his rake, to be replaced by the Mamtal of Mari7ie Zoology, 

 a work of reference of real importance. On March 20, 

 1855, Gosse read before the Linnaean Society an important 

 paper on Peachia, a new genus of unattached, cylindrical 

 sea-anemones, buried in sand, which he had characterized 

 from specimens secured in Torbay, and sent to him by 

 Charles Kingsley. This paper attracted a good deal of 

 attention, and among those present on the occasion of its 

 reading was Charles Darwin, to whom my father was that 

 evening presented for the first time. Gosse was captivated 

 at once, as all who met -him were, by the simplicity, 

 frankness, and cordiality of this great and charming man. 



