332 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XVII 



JERMYN STREET, Aug. 3, 1861. 



MY DEAR SPENCER I have been absent on a journey to 

 Dublin and elsewhere x nearly all this week, and hence 

 your note and proof did not reach me till yesterday. I 

 have but just had time to glance through the latter, and 

 I need hardly say how heartily I concur in its general 

 tenor. I have, however, marked one or two passages 

 which I think require some qualification. Then, at p. 

 272, the fact that the vital manifestations of plants depend 

 as entirely as those of animals upon the fall towards 

 stable equilibrium of the elements of a complex protein 

 compound is not sufficiently prominent. It is not so 

 much that plants are deoxidisers and animals oxidisers, as 

 that plants are manufacturers and animals consumers. It 

 is true that plants manufacture a good deal of non-nitro- 

 genous produce in proportion to the nitrogenous, but it is 

 the latter which is chiefly useful to the animal consumer 

 .and not the former. This point is a very important one, 

 which I have never seen clearly and distinctly put the 

 prettiness of Dumas' circulation of the elements having 

 seduced everybody. 



Of course this in no way affects the principle of what 

 you say. The statements which I have marked at p. 276 

 and 278 should have their authorities given, I think. I 

 should hardly like to commit myself to them absolutely. 



You will, if my memory does not mislead me, find 

 authority for my note at p. 283 in Stephenson's life. I 

 think old Geo. Stephenson brought out his views at 

 breakfast at Sir R. Peel's when Buckland was there. 



These are all the points that strike me, and I do not 

 keep your proof longer (I send it by the same post as this 

 note), because I fear you may be inconvenienced by the 

 delay. 



Tyndall is unfortunately gone to Switzerland, so that 



1 Visiting Sir Philip Egerton at Oultoii Park. 



