i853 HIS FRANKNESS 12 1 



before his friend Dr. W. B. Carpenter entered the field, he 

 writes to Hooker: — 



I at once, of course, told Carpenter precisely what I had 

 done. Had I known of his candidature earlier, I should cer- 

 tainly have taken no actiye part on either side— not for Latham, 

 because I would not oppose Carpenter, and not for Carpenter, 

 because his getting the Registrarship would probably be an ad- 

 vantage for me, as I should have a good chance of obtaining the 

 Exarainership in Physiology and Comparative Anatomy which 

 he would vacate. Indeed, I refused to act for Carpenter in a 

 case in which he asked me to do so, partly for this reason and 

 partly because I felt thoroughly committed to Latham. Under 

 these circumstances I think you are quite absolved from any 

 pledge to me. It's deuced hard to keep straight in this wicked 

 world, but as you say the only chance is to out with it, and I 

 thank you much for writing so frankly about the matter. I hope 

 it will be as fine as to-day at Down.* 



Unfortunately the method was not so successful with 

 smaller minds. Once in 1852, when he had to report un- 

 favourably on a paper for the Annals of Natural History on 

 the structure of the Starfishes, sent in by an acquaintance, 

 he felt it right not to conceal his action, as he might have 

 done, behind the referee's usual screen of anonymity, but to 

 write a frank account of the reasons which had led him so 

 to report, that he might both clear himself of the suspicion 

 of having dealt an unfair blow in the dark, and give his ac- 

 quaintance the opportunity of correcting and enlarging his 

 paper with a view of submitting it again for publication. 



In this case the only result was an impassioned corre- 

 spondence, the author even going so far as to suggest that 

 Huxley had condemned the paper without having so much 

 as dissected an Echinoderm in his life ! and then all inter- 

 course ceased, till years afterwards the gentleman in ques- 

 tion realised the weaknesses of his paper and repented him 

 of his wrath. 



Before leaving London to begin his work at Tenby as 

 Naturalist to the Survey, he delivered at St. Martin's Hall, 

 on July 22, an address on the " Educational Value of the 



* Charles Darwin's home in Kent. 



