4 6 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, hi 



I wish that more of the q ueer let ters, which arrived in 

 never-failing streams, had been preserved. A favourite type 

 was the anonymous letter. It prayed fervently, oyer four 

 pages, that the Almighty would send him down quick into 

 the pit, and was usually signed simply " A Lady." Others 

 came from cranks of every species : the man who demon- 

 strated that the world was flat, or that the atmosphere had 

 no weight — an easy proof, for you weigh a bottle full of air ; 

 then break it to pieces, so that it holds nothing ; weigh the 

 pieces, and they are the same weight as the whole bottle 

 full of air ! Or, again, that the optical law of equality be- 

 tween the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection is 

 a delusion, whence it follows that all our established latitudes 

 are incorrect, and the difference of temperature between 

 Labrador and Ireland, nominally on the same parallel, is 

 easily accounted for. Then came the suggestions of little 

 pieces of work that might so easily be undertaken by a man 

 of Huxley's capacity, learning, and energy. Enormous 

 manuscripts were sent him with a request that he would 

 write a careful criticism of them, and arrange for their 

 publication in the proceedings of some learned society or 

 first-rate magazine. One of the most delightful came this 

 year. A doctor in India, having just read John Inglesant, 

 begged Professor Huxley to do for Science what Mr. 

 Shorthouse had done for the Church of England. As for 

 the material difficulties in the way of getting such a book 

 written in the midst of other work, the ingenious doctor 

 suggested the use of a phonograph driven by a gas-engine. 

 The great thoughts dictated into it from the comfort of an 

 armchair, could easily be worked up into novel shape by 

 a collaborator. 



India, again, provided the following application of 1885, 

 made in all seriousness by a youthful Punjaubee with 

 scientific aspirations, who feared to be forced into the law. 

 After an intimate account of his life, he modestly appeals 

 for a post in some scientific institution, where he may get 

 his food, do experiments three or four hours a day, and 

 learn English. Latterly his mental activity had been very 

 great : — " I have been contemplating," he says, " to give a 



