36 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, hi 



In my last letter I think I mentioned to you that I had 

 worked out and sent home to the President of the Linnaean Soc, 

 through Capt. Stanley, an account of Physalia, or Portuguese 

 man-of-war as it is called, an animal whose structure and affini- 

 ties had never been properly worked out. The careful investi- 

 gation I made gave rise to several new ideas covering the whole 

 class of animals to which this creature belongs, and these ideas 

 I have had the good fortune to have had many opportunities of 

 working out in the course of our subsequent wanderings, so that 

 I am provided with materials for a second paper far more con- 

 siderable in extent, and embracing an altogether wider field. 

 This second paper is now partly in esse — that is, written out — 

 and partly in posse — that is, in my head; but I shall send it 

 before leaving. Its title will be " Observations upon the Anato- 

 my of the Diphydae, and upon the Unity of Organisation of the 

 Diphydse and Physophoridae," and it will have lots of figures 

 to illustrate it. Now when we return from the north I hope to 

 have collected materials for a much bigger paper than either of 

 these, and to which they will serve as steps. If my present 

 anticipations turn out correct, this paper will achieve one of the 

 great ends of Zoology and Anatomy, viz. the reduction of two 

 or three apparently widely separated and incongruous groups 

 into modifications of the single type, every step of the reasoning 

 being based upon anatomical facts. There ! Think yourself 

 lucky you have only got that to read instead of the slight ab- 

 stract of all three papers with which I had some "intention of 

 favouring you.* 



But five years ago you threw a slipper after me for luck on 

 my first examination, and I must have you to do it for every- 

 thing else. 



At the Cape a stay of a month was made, from March 6 

 to April ID, and certain surveying work was done, after 

 which the Rattlesnake sailed for Mauritius. In spite of the 

 fact that the novelty of tropical scenery had worn off, the 

 place made a deep impression. He writes to his mother, 

 May 15, 1847:— 



After a long and sornewhat rough passage from the Cape, we 

 made the highland of the Isle of France on the afternoon of the 



* These papers are to be found in vol. i. of the Scientific Memoirs of 

 T. H. Huxley, p. 9. 



