1861 ANIMALS AND PLANTS 333 



I cannot get you his comments. Whether he might have 

 picked holes in any detail or not I do not know, but I 

 know his opinions sufficiently well to make sure in his 

 agreement with the general argument. In fact a favourite 

 problem of his is Given the molecular forces in a mutton 

 chop, deduce Hamlet or Faust therefrom. He is confident 

 that the Physics of the Future will solve this easily. 



I am grieved to hear such a poor account of your 

 health ; I believe you will have to come at last to the 

 heroic remedy of matrimony, and if " gynopathy " were a 

 mode of treatment that could be left off if it did not suit 

 the constitution, I should decidedly recommend it. 



But it's worse than opium-eating once begin and you 

 must go on, and so, though I ascribe my own good 

 condition mainly to the care my wife takes of me, I dare 

 not recommend it to you, lest perchance you should get 

 hold of the wrong medicine. 



Beyond spending a night awake now and then I am 

 in very good order, and I am going to spend my vacation 

 in a spasmodic effort to lick the Manual into shape and 

 work off some other arrears. 



My wife is very fairly well, and, I trust, finally freed 

 from all the symptoms which alarmed me so much. I 

 dread the coming round of September for her again, but it 

 must be faced. 



The babbies are nourishing ; and beyond the facts 

 that we have a lunatic neighbour on one side and an 

 empty house on the other, that it has cost me about twice 

 as much to get into my house as I expected, that the 

 cistern began to leak and spoil a ceiling, and such other 

 small drawbacks, the new house is a decided success. 



I forget whether I gave you the address, which is 



26 ABBEY PLACE, 

 ST. JOHN'S WOOD. 



You had better direct to me there, as after the 10th 



