26 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, ii 



the fungoid growth which became popularly known as Salmon 

 Disease. Professor Huxley gave much time to the study of 

 the conditions under which the fungus nourished: he devoted 

 much space in his earlier reports to the subject: and he read 

 a paper upon it at a remarkable meeting of the Royal Society 

 in the summer of 1881. He took a keen interest in these in- 

 vestigations, and he wrote to me from Xorth Wales, at the end 

 of 1881, " The salmon brought to me here have not been so 

 badly diseased as I could have wished, and the fungus dies so 

 rapidly out of the water that only one specimen furnished me 

 with materials in lively condition. These I have cultivated: 

 and to my great satisfaction have got some flies infected. With 

 nine precious muscoid corpses, more or less ornamented with a 

 lovely fur trimming of Saprolegnia, I shall return to London 

 to-morrow, and shall be ready in a short time, I hope, to furnish 

 Salmon Disease wholesale, retail, or for exportation." 



In carrying out the duties of our office, Professor Huxley 

 and I were necessarily thrown into very close communication. 

 There were few days in which we did not pass some time in 

 each other's company: there were many weeks in which we 

 travelled together through the river basins of this country. I 

 think that I am justified in saying that official intercourse 

 ripened into warm personal friendship, and that, for the many 

 months in which we served together, we lived on terms of 

 intimacy which are rare even among colleagues or even among 

 friends. 



It is needless to say that, as a companion, Professor Huxley 

 was the most delightful of men. Those who have met him in 

 society, or enjoyed the hospitality of his house, must have been 

 conscious of the singular charm of a conversation, which was 

 founded on knowledge, enlarged by memory, and brightened by 

 humour. But, admirable as he was in society, no one could 

 have realised the full charm of his company who had not con- 

 versed with him alone. He had the rare art of placing men, 

 whose knowledge and intellect were inferior to his own, at their 

 ease. He knew how to draw out all that was best in the com- 

 panion who suited him ; and he had equal pleasure in giving 

 and receiving. Our conversation ranged over every subject. 

 We discussed together the grave problems of man and his 

 destiny; we disputed on the minor complications of modern 

 politics; we criticised one another's literary judgments; and we 

 laughed over the stories which we told one another, and of 

 which Professor Huxley had an inexhaustible fund. 



