LETTERS FROM ITALY 



9' 



As usual the weather is " unusual " — hot in the sun, cold 

 •ound the corner and at night. Moreover, I found by yester- 

 lay's paper that the beastly Sicilians won't give up their ten 

 lays' quarantine. So all chance of getting to Catania or Palermo 

 s gone. I am not sure whether we shall stay here for some 

 ime or go to Rome, but at any rate we shall be here a week. 



Dohrn is away getting subsidies in Germany for his new 

 ihip. We inspected the Aquarium this morning. Eisig and 

 Vlayer are in charge. Madame is a good deal altered in the 

 :ourse of the twelve years that have elapsed since I saw her, 

 )ut says she is much better than she was. 



As for myself, I got very much better when in North Italy in 

 ;pite of the piercing cold. But the fatigue of the journey from 

 \ncona here, and the worry at the end of it, did me no good, and 

 '. have been seedy for a day or two. However, I am picking up. 



I see one has to be very careful here. We had a lovely drive 

 resterday out Pausilippo, but the wife got chilled and was shaky 

 his morning. However, we got very good news of our daughter 

 his evening, and that has set us both up. 



My blessing for to-morrow will reach you after date. Let 

 is hear how everything went off. 



Your return in May project is really impracticable on ac- 

 :ount of the Fishery Report. I cannot be so long absent from 

 he Home Office whatever I might manage with S.K. 



With our love to Mrs. Foster and you — Ever yours very 

 aithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



This letter, as he says a week later, was written when 

 le " was rather down in the mouth from the wretched 

 old weather, and the wife being laid up with a bad cold," 

 iesides his own ailments. 



I find I have to be very careful about night air, but nothing 

 loes me so much good as six or seven miles' walk between 

 reakfast and lunch — at a good sharp pace. So I conclude that 

 here cannot be much the matter, and yet I am always on the 

 dge, so to speak, of that infernal hypochondria. 



We have settled down here very comfortably, and I do not 

 link we shall care to go any further south. Madame Dohrn 

 nd all the people at the stazione are very kind, and want to do 

 11 sorts of things for us. The other day we went in the launch 

 ) Capri, intending next day to go to Amalfi. But it threatened 

 ad weather, so we returned in the evening. The journey 



