28 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, ii 



was delighted when I told him about my appointment. Dim 

 visions of strangely formed corpuscles seemed to cross his imagi- 

 nation like the ghosts of the kings in Macbeth. 



What seems his head 

 The likeness of a nucleated cell has on. 



The law's delays are proverbial, but on this occasion, as 

 on the return of the Rattlesnake, the Admiralty seem to 

 have been almost as provoking to the eager young surgeon 

 as any lawyer could have been. The appointment was 

 promised in May ; it was not made till October. On the 

 6th of that month there is another letter to his sister, giving 

 fuller particulars of his prospects on the voyage : — 



My dearest Lizzie — At last I have really got my appoint- 

 ment and joined my ship. I was so completely disgusted with 

 the many delays that had occurred that I made up my mind not 

 to write to anybody again until I had my commission in my 

 hand. Henceforward, like another Jonah, my dwelling-place 

 will be the " inwards " of the Rattlesnake, and upon the whole 

 I really doubt whether Jonah was much worse accommodated, so 

 far as room goes, than myself. My total length, as you are aware, 

 is considerable, 5 feet 11 inches, possibly, but the height of the 

 lower deck of the Rattlesnake, which will be my especial loca- 

 tion, is at the outside 4 feet 10 inches. What I am to do with 

 the superfluous foot I cannot divine. Happily, however, there 

 is a sort of skylight into the berth, so that I shall be able to sit 

 with the body in it and my head out. 



Apart from joking, however, this is not such a great matter, 

 and it is the only thing I would see altered in the whole, affair. 

 The officers, as far as I have seen them, are a very gentlemanly, 

 excellent set of men, and considering we are to be together for 

 four or five years, that is a matter of no small importance. I 

 am not given to be sanguine, but I confess I expect a good deal 

 to arise out of this appointment. In the first place, surveying- 

 ships are totally different from the ordinary run of men-of-war. 

 The requisite discipline is kept up, but not in the martinet style. 

 Less form is observed. From the men who are appointed hav- 

 ing more or less scientific turns, they have more respect for 

 one another than that given by mere position in the service, 

 and hence that position is less taken advantage of. They are 

 brought more into contact, and hence those engaged in the sur- 

 veying service almost proverbially stick by one another. To 



