424 LIFE 0F PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxtii 



severe types may be like. I find coughing continuously for 

 fourteen hours or so a queer kind of mildness. 



Could you put in an excuse on account of influenza? 



Can't write any more. — Ever yours, T. H. H. 



Hodeslea, Eastbourne, March 19, 1895. 

 My dear Knowles — I am making use of the pen of my dear 

 daughter and good nurse, in the first place to thank you for your 

 cheque, in the second place to say that you must not look for 

 the article this month. I haven't been out of bed since the 1st, 

 but they are fighting a battle with bronchitis over my body. — 

 Ever yours very faithfully, For T. H. H., 



Sophy Huxley. 



The next four months were a period of painful struggle 

 against disease, borne with a patience and gentleness which 

 was rare even in the long experience of the trained nurses 

 who tended him. To natural toughness of constitution he 

 added a power of will unbroken by the long strain ; and for 

 the sake of others to whom his life meant so much, he wished 

 to recover and willed to do everything towards recovery. 

 And so he managed to throw off the influenza and the 

 severe bronchitis which attended it. What was marvellous 

 at his age, and indeed would scarcely have been expected in 

 a young man, most serious mischief induced by the bron- 

 chitis disappeared. By May he was strong enough to walk 

 from the terrace to the lawn and his beloved saxifrages, 

 and to remount the steps to the house without help. 



But though the original attack was successfully thrown 

 off, the lung trouble had affected the heart ; and in his 

 weakened state, renal mischief ensued. Yet he held out 

 splendidly, never giving in, save for one hour of utter pros- 

 tration, all through this weary length of sickness. His first 

 recovery strengthened him in expecting to get well from 

 the second attack. And on June 10 he writes brightly 

 enough to Sir J. D. Hooker : — 



Hodeslea, Eastbourne, June 10, 1895. 



My dear old Friend — It was cheering to get your letter 

 and to hear that you had got through winter and diphtheria 

 without scathe. 



I can't say very much for myself yet, but I am carried down 



