1895 HIS LAST ILLNESS 425 



to a tent in the garden every day, and live in the fresh air all 

 I can. The thing that keeps me back is an irritability of the 

 stomach tending to the rejection of all solid food. However, 

 I think I am slowly getting the better of it — thanks to my con- 

 stitutional toughness and careful nursing and dieting. 



What has Spencer been trampling on the " Pour le merite " 

 for, when he accepted the Lyncei ? I was just writing to con- 

 gratulate him when, by good luck, I saw he had refused ! 



The beastly nausea which comes on when I try to do any- 

 thing warns me to stop. 



With our love to you both — Ever yours, 



T. H. Huxley. 



The last time I saw him was on a visit to Eastbourne 

 from June 22-24. I was astonished to find how well he 

 looked in spite of all ; thin, indeed, but browned with the 

 endless sunshine of the 1895 summer as he sat every day 

 in the verandah. His voice was still fairly strong ; he was 

 delighted to see us about him, and was cheerful, even merry 

 at times. As the nurse said, she could not expect him to 

 recover, but he did not look like a dying man. When I 

 asked him how he was, he said, " A mere carcass, which has 

 to be tended by other people." But to the last he looked 

 forward to recovery. One day he told the nurse that the 

 doctors must be wrong about the renal mischief, for if they 

 were right, he ought already to be in a state of coma. This 

 was precisely what they found most astonishing in his case ; 

 it seemed as if the mind, the strong nervous organisation, 

 were triumphing over the shattered body. Herein lay one 

 of the chief hopes of ultimate recovery. 



As late as June 26 he wrote, with shaky handwriting 

 but indomitable spirit, to relieve his old friend from the 

 anxiety he must feel from the newspaper bulletins. 



Hodeslea, Eastbourne, June 26, 1895. 



My dear Hooker — The pessimistic reports of my condition 

 which have got into the papers may be giving you unnecessary 

 alarm for the condition of your old comrade. So I send a line to 

 tell you the exact state of affairs. 



There is kidney mischief going on — and it is accompanied 

 by very distressing attacks of nausea and vomiting, which some- 

 times last for hours and make life a burden. 



