248 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xvii 



own the answers which other thinkers gave to the problems 

 which interested himself. 



A gentler reproof of this time touches his handwriting, 

 which was never of the most legible, so that his foreign cor- 

 respondents in particular sometimes complained. Haeckel 

 used to get his difficulties deciphered by his colleague 

 Gegenbaur. I cannot forbear quoting the delicate remon- 

 strance of Professor Lacaze du Thiers, and the flattering 

 remedy he proposed: — 



■ March 14. — Je lis 1' Anglais imprime, mais vos ecritures 

 anglaises sont si rapides, qu'il m'est quelquefois difficile de m'en 

 sortir. On me dit que vous ecrivez si bien le franqais que je 

 crois que je vous lirais bien mieux dans ma langue ! 



On his return from examining at Dublin, he again 

 looked over proofs for Mr. Spencer. 



Jermyn Street, Aug. 3, 1861. 



My dear Spencer — I have been absent on a journey to 

 Dublin and elsewhere * nearly all this week, and hence your 

 note and proof did not reach me till yesterday. I have but just 

 had time to glance through the latter, and I need hardly say how 

 heartily I concur in its general tenor. I have, however, marked 

 one or two passages which I think require some qualification. 

 Then, at p. 272, the fact that the vital manifestations of plants 

 depend as entirely as those of animals upon the fall towards 

 stable equilibrium of the elements of a complex protein com- 

 pound is not sufficiently prominent. It is not so much that plants 

 are deoxidisers and animals oxidisers, as that plants are manu- 

 facturers and animals consumers. It is true that plants manu- 

 facture a good deal of non-nitrogenous produce in proportion 

 to the nitrogenous, but it is the latter which is chiefly useful to 

 the animal consumer and not the former. This point is a very 

 important one, which I have never seen clearly and distinctly 

 put — the prettiness of Dumas' circulation of the elements having 

 seduced everybody. 



Of course this in no way aflfects the principle of what you 

 say. The statements which I have marked at p. 276 and 278 

 should have their authorities given, I think. I should hardly 

 like to commit myself to them absolutely. 



You will, if my memory does not mislead me, find authority 

 for my note at p. 283 in Stephenson's life. I think old Geo. 



* Visiting Sir Pliilip Egerton at Oulton Park. 



