30 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, ii 



apologise. Kind regards to the Doctor and kisses to the babbies. 

 Write me a long letter all about yourselves. — Your affect, 

 brother, T. H. Huxley. 



One more description to complete the sketch of his 

 quarters on board the Rattlesnake. It is from a letter to 

 his mother, written at Plymouth, where the Rattlesnake put 

 in after leaving Portsmouth. The comparison with the ordi- 

 nary quarters of an assistant-surgeon, and the shifts to which 

 a studious man might be put in his endeavour to find a quiet 

 spot to work in, have a flavour of Mr. Midshipman Easy 

 about them to relieve the deplorable reality of his situation : — 



You will be very glad to know that I am exceedingly com- 

 fortable here. My cabin has now got into tolerable order, and 

 what with my books — which are, I am happy to say, not a few 

 — my gay curtain and the spicy oilcloth which will be down on 

 the floor, looks most respectable. Furthermore, although it is 

 an unquestionably dull day I have sufficient light to write here, 

 without the least trouble, to read, or even if necessary, to use 

 my microscope. I went to see a friend of mine on board the 

 Recruit the other day, and truly I hugged myself when I com- 

 pared my position with his. The berth where he and seven 

 others eat their daily bread is hardly bigger than my cabin, ex- 

 cept in height — and, of course, he has to sleep in a hammock. 

 My friend is rather an eccentric character, and, being missed 

 in the ship, was discovered the other day reading in the main- 

 top — the only place, as he said, sufficiently retired for study. 

 And this is really no exaggeration. If I had no cabin I should 

 take to drinking in a month. 



It was during this period of waiting that he attended his 

 first meeting of the British Association, which was held in 

 1846 at Southampton. Here he obtained from Professor 

 Edward Forbes one of his living specimens of Amphioxus 

 lanceolatiis, and made an examination of its blood. The 

 result was a short paper read at the following meeting of 

 the Association,* which showed that in the composition of 

 its blood this lowly vertebrate approached very near the 

 invertebrates. 



* " Examination of the Corpuscles of the Blood of Amphioxus lan- 

 ceolatus," British Association Report, 1847, ii. p. 95, and Sci. Memoirs i. 



