io THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



curiosity, and when, long afterwards, the ladies left, she 

 tried to worm out the secrets of the art by pumping the 

 servant-maid. All that that poor oracle could tell, however, 

 was that she had been frequently sent to the chemist's for 

 " million ; "■ this the united brains of the family translated 

 into " vermilion," and it was felt that a considerable 

 discovery had been made. 



Immediately after the family had removed into Skinner 

 Street, Philip was seized with a serious attack of water on 

 the brain, and for a while his life hung on an even balance. 

 His subsequent health does not seem to have been 

 impaired and through life, in spite of frequent temporary 

 disorders, he enjoyed a very tough and elastic constitution. 

 He acquired the rudiments of book-learning from a vener- 

 able dame, called " Ma'am Sly," who taught babies their 

 alphabet in a little alley leading out of Skinner Street. 

 To her he went at three years old, to be out of harm's way. 

 A little later, he began to suffer from a phenomenon which 

 would perhaps not be worth recording if it had not shown, 

 in our family, a hereditary recurrence, having tormented 

 the early childhood of my grandfather and also of myself. 

 My father has thus described it : 



" I suffered when I was about five years old from some 

 " strange indescribable dreams, which were repeated 

 " quite frequently. It was as if space was occupied with 

 " a multitude of concentric circles, the outer ones im- 

 " measurably vast, I myself being the common centre. 

 " They seemed to revolve and converge upon me, causing 

 " a most painful sensation of dread. I do not know that 

 " I had heard, and I was too young to have read, the 

 " description of Ezekiel's ' dreadful wheels.' " 

 At the age of four, the instinct of the future naturalist 

 was first aroused, as in later years he was fond of repeating, 

 by a vision which imprinted itself upon his memory with 



