CHAPTER IX 



1855 



Miss Heathorn and her parents reached England at 

 the beginning of May 1855, and took up their abode at 8 

 Titchfield Terrace, not far from Huxley's own lodgings and 

 his brother's house. One thing, however, filled Huxley with 

 dismay. Miss Heathorn's health had broken down utterly, 

 and she looked at death's door. All through the preceding 

 year she had been very ill ; she had gone with friends, Mr. 

 and Mrs. Wise, to the newly opened mining-camp at Bath- 

 urst, and she and Mrs. Wise were indeed the first women 

 to visit it; returning to Sydney after rather a rough time, 

 she caught a chill, and being wrongly treated by a doctor 

 of the blood-letting, calomel-dosing school, she was re- 

 duced to a shadow, and only saved by another practitioner, 

 who reversed the treatment just in time. 



In his letters to her, Huxley had not at first realised 

 the danger she had been in ; and afterwards tried to keep 

 her spirits up by a cheerful optimism that would only look 

 forward to 'their joyful union and many years of unbroken 

 happiness to atone for their long parting. 



But the reahty alarmed him. He took her to one of 

 the most famous doctors of the day, as if merely a patient 

 he was interested in. Then as one member of the profession 

 to another, he asked him privately his opinion of the case. 

 " I give her six months of life," said ^sculapius. " Well, 

 six months or not," replied Huxley, " she is going to be my 

 wife." The doctor was mightily put out. " You ought to 

 have told me that before." Of course, the evasive answer 

 in such a contingency was precisely what Huxley wished to 

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