JuxE 6, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



529 



part in tliis affair, and his own account of it, 

 written at the time in a letter to Darwin, is 

 as follows : 



Well, Sam Oxon got up and spouted for half an 

 hour with inimitable spirit, ugliness and emptiness 

 and unfairness. I saw he was coached up by Owen 

 and knew nothing, and he said not a syllable but 

 what was in the Eeviews; he ridiculed you badly 

 and Huxley savagely. Huxley answered admirably 

 and turned the tables, hut he could not throw his 

 voice over so large an assembly, nor command the 

 audience; and he did not allude to Sam's weak 

 points nor put the matter in a form or way that 

 carried the audience. The battle waxed hot. Lady 

 Brewster fainted, the excitement increased as 

 others sjwke; my blood boiled, I felt myself a 

 dastard; now I saw my advantage; I swore to 

 myself that I would smite that Amalekite, Sam, 

 hip and thigh if my heart jumped out of my mouth, 

 and I handed my name up to the president 

 (Henslow') as ready to throw down the gauntlet. 



I must tell you that Henslow as president would 

 have none apeak but those who had arguments to 

 use, and four persons had been bunked by the 

 audience and president for mere declamation: it 

 moreover became necessary for ea«h speaker to 

 mount the platform, and so there I was cocked up 

 with Sam at my right elbow, and there and then I 

 smashed him amid rounds of applause. I hit him 

 in the wind at the first shot in ten words taken 

 from his own ugly mouth ; and then proceeded to 

 demonstrate in as few more: (1) that he could 

 never have read your book, and (2) that he was 

 absolutely ignorant of the rudiments of Botanical 

 Science. I said a few more on the subject of my 

 own experience and conversion, and wound up with 

 a very few observations on the relative positions of 

 the old and new hypotheses, and with some words 

 of caution to the audience. Sam was shut up — 

 had not one word to say in reply, and the meeting 

 was dissolved forthwith, leaving you master of the 

 field after four hours' battle. Huxley, who had 

 borne all the previous brunt of the battle, and who 

 never before (thank God) praised me to my face, 

 told me it was splendid, and that he did not know 

 before what stuff I w.-u"! made of. I have been 

 congratulated and thanked by the blackest coats 

 and whitest stocks in Oxford. 



Henslow, best remonribered as the teacher 

 and friend of Darwin at Cambridge, was 

 Hooker's father-in-law. The hatter's respect 

 and affection for him were unbounded. He 

 writes to Huxley from Henslow's deathbed: 



I am utterly overwhelmed; to be loved as he was 

 for the good he had done I would lay down my 

 science and almost turn parson. To me personally 

 the loss will be inmeasurable — he took interest in 

 everything I did and I loved him — I am wrong to 

 think how much. His loss to this neighborhood 

 will b« incalculable; there is none to take his place 

 morally, socially or religiously. 



Hooker's attitude toward Darwin was that 

 of a disciple. Although Darwin always 

 looked up to Hooker as his master and guide 

 in all matters botanical, the latter could ua- 

 affectedl.y write in this delightful strain : 



The whole thing [t. e., Hooker's masterly work 

 on Welwitschia] is, however, a dry record of 

 singular structures, and sinks down to the level of 

 the dullest descriptive account of dead matter be- 

 side your jolly dancing facts anent orchid-life and 

 bee-life. I have looked at an Orchid or two since 

 reading the Orchid book, and feel that I never 

 could have made out one of your points, even had 

 I limitless leisure, zeal and material. I am a dull 

 dog, a very dull dog. I may content myself with 

 the per contra reflection that you could not (be 

 dull enough to) write a "Genera Plantarum," 

 which is just about what I am best fitted for. I 

 feel I have a call that way and you the other. 



In his early days. Hooker took an interest in 

 entomology; and he recurs more than once to 

 the relationship between insects and plants as 

 having an important bearing on the larger 

 problems of botany. Since he had no time for 

 entomology, it is regrettable that he did not 

 have a group of entomological friends to work 

 on the problems he so often had in mind. 

 The bees of high altitudes in the Himalayas, 

 noticed by Hooker, were first studied and de- 

 scribed from the collections of the Thibet 

 Mission, fifty-five years later. Darwin's orchid 

 book suggested to him : 



That insects may have a wonderful deal more 

 to do with checking migration than climate or 

 geographies, and that the absence of whole genera 

 may thus one day be accounted for by absence of 

 genera of insects: in short the cat and clover story 

 is capable of immediate expansion by any one hav- 

 ing suflScient knowledge of plants, insects and 

 geography. 



Also, as regards the past : 



