i865 LETTERS TO DARWIN 285 



In the year of grace 1861, there were three genera of Eu- 

 ropean carboniferous Labyrinthodonts known, Archegosaurus, 

 Scleroceplus, Parabatrachns. 



The vertebral column of Archegosaurus was alone known, 

 and it was in a remarkably imperfect state of ossification. Since 

 that date, by a succession of odd chances, seven new genera 

 have come into my hands, and of these six certainly have well- 

 ossified and developed vertebral columns. 



I reckon there are now about thirty genera of Labyrintho- 

 donts known from all parts of the world and all deposits. Of 

 these eleven have been established by myself in the course of 

 the last half-dozen years, upon remains which have come into 

 my hands by the merest chance. 



Five and twenty years ago, all the world but yourself be- 

 lieved that a vertebrate animal of higher organisation than a 

 fish in the carboniferous rocks never existed. I think the whole 

 story is not a bad comment upon negative evidence. 



/an. I, 1865. 



My dear Darwin — I cannot do better than write my first 

 letter of the year to you, if it is only to wish you and yours your 

 fair share (and more than your fair share, if need be) of good 

 for the New Year. The immediate cause of my writing, how- 

 ever, was turning out my pocket and finding therein an unan- 

 swered letter of yours containing a scrap on which is a request 

 for a photograph, which I am afraid I overlooked. At least I 

 hope I did, and then my manners won't be so bad. I enclose the 

 latest version of myself. 



I wish I could follow out your suggestion about a book on 

 zoology. (By the way please to tell Miss Emma that my last 

 book is a book.* Marry come up ! Does her ladyship call it a 

 pamphlet?) 



But I assure you that writing is a perfect pest to me unless 

 I am interested, and not only a bore but a very slow process. I 

 have some popular lectures on Physiology,f which have been 



* The first volume of his Hunterian Lectures on Comparative Anat- 

 omy. A second volume never appeared. Miss Darwin, as her father 

 wrote to Huxley after the delivery of his Working Men's Lectures in 

 1862, "was reading your Lectures, and ended by saying, 'I wish he 

 would write a book.' I answered, ' he has just written a great book 

 on the skull.' 'I don't call that a book,' she replied, and added, 'I 

 want something that people can read ; he does write so well.'" 



\ See letter of April 22, 1863. 



