1850 CHARACTER OF HIS SCIENTIFIC WORK 65 



information, and the care and skill with which you have con- 

 ducted elaborate dissections and microscopic examinations of 

 the curious creatures you were so fortunate as to meet with, 

 necessarily gives a peculiar and unique character to your re- 

 searches, since thereby they fill up gaps in our knowledge of 

 the animal kingdom. This is the more important, since such 

 researches have been almost always neglected during voyages of 

 discovery. The value of some of your notes was publicly ac- 

 knowledged during your absence, when your memoir on the 

 structure of the Medusae, communicated to the Royal Society, 

 was singled out for publication in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions. It would be a very great loss to science if the mass of 

 new matter and fresh observation which you have accumulated 

 were not to be worked out and fully published, as well as an 

 injustice to the merits of the expedition in which you have 

 served. 



The latter offered to write to the Admiralty on his behalf, 

 giving the weight of his name to the suggestion that the 

 work to be done would take at least twelve months, and that 

 therefore his appointment to the Fisguard should not be 

 limited to any less period. " They might be disposed," 

 wrote Huxley to him, " to cut anything I request down — on 

 principle." Moreover, Owen, Forbes, Bell, and Sharpey, all 

 members of the Committee of Recommendation of the 

 Royal Society, had expressed themselves so favourably to 

 his views that in his application he was able to relieve the 

 economic scruples of the Admiralty by telling them that he 

 had a means of publishing his papers through the Royal 

 Society. 



The result of his application, thus backed, was that he 

 obtained his appointment on November 29. It was for six 

 months, subject to extension if he were able to report satis- 

 factory progress with his work. 



A long letter to his sister, now settled in Tennessee, 

 gives a good idea of his aims and hopes at this time. 



41 North Bank, Regent's Park, 

 Nov. 21, 1850. 

 My dearest Lizzie — We have been at home now nearly 

 three weeks, and I have been a free man again twelve days. 

 Her Majesty's ships have been paid ofif on the 9th of this month. 



