414 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XXI 



reference to the subject under consideration. He then 

 read the letter, which was simply signed " A Kegular 

 Attendant at Your Lectures," and which in a few words 

 drew attention to the appalling distress existing among 

 the population out of work at the East End, and suggested 

 that all those present at the lecture that night should be 

 allowed the opportunity of contributing Id. or 2d. each 

 towards a fund for their relief, and that the professor 

 should become the treasurer for the evening. This 

 suggestion was received by the audience with marks of 

 approval. The professor said he would not put pressure 

 on anyone ; he would simply place his own subscription 

 in one of the skulls on the table. This he did, and all 

 the audience coming on the platform, threw in money in 

 copper and silver until the novel cash-box was filled with 

 coin which amounted to a large sum. A gentleman 

 present expressed a hope that the example set by that 

 audience might be followed with good results wherever 

 large bodies assembled either for educational or recreative 

 purposes. 



At the end of April this year my father spent a 

 week in Brittany with Dr. Hooker and Sir J. 

 Lubbock, rambling about the neighbourhood of 

 Rennes and Vannes, and combining the examination 

 of prehistoric remains with the refreshment of holiday- 

 making. 



Few letters of this period exist. The x Club was 

 doing its work. Most of those to whom he would 

 naturally have written he met constantly. Two 

 letters to Professor Haeckel give pieces of his experi- 

 ence. One suggests the limits of aggressive polemics, 

 as to which I remember his once saying that he him- 

 self had only twice been the aggressor in controversy, 



