1862 EXAMINER AT COLLEGE OF SURGEONS 339 



Grindelwald, the Aar valley, and the Rhone valley, as 

 far as here ; but, up to the day before yesterday, my 

 health remained very unsatisfactory, and I was terribly 

 teased by the neuralgia or rheumatism or whatever it is. 



On that day, however, I had a very sharp climb 

 involving a great deal of exertion and a most prodigious 

 sweating, and on the next morning I really woke up a 

 new man. Yesterday I repeated the dose, and I am in 

 hopes now that I shall come back fit to grapple with all 

 the work that lies before me. Ever, my dear Flower, 

 yours very faithfully, T. H. HUXLEY. 



This autumn he gladly took on what appeared to 

 be an additional piece of work. On October 12 he 

 writes from 26 Abbey Place : 



I saw Flower yesterday, and I find that my present 

 colleague in the Hunterian Professorship wishes to get 

 rid of his share in the lectures, having, I suppose, at the 

 eleventh hour discovered his incompetency. It looks 

 paradoxical to say so, but it will really be easier for me 

 to give eighteen or twenty-four lectures than twelve, so 

 that I have professed my readiness to take as much as he 

 likes off his hands. 



This professorship had been in existence for more 

 than sixty years, for when the Museum of the famous 

 anatomist John Hunter was entrusted to the College 

 of Surgeons by the Government, the condition was 

 made " that one course of lectures, not less than 

 twenty-four in number, on comparative anatomy and 

 other subjects, illustrated by the preparations, shall be 

 given every year by some member of the company." 

 Huxley arranged to publish from year to year the 

 substance of his lectures on the vertebrates, " and by 



