I87I BREAKDOWN IN HEALTH 



393 



Till the end of the year the immense amount of work 

 did not apparently tell upon him. He rejoiced in it. In 

 December he remarked to his wife that with all his different 

 irons in the fire, he had never felt his mind clearer or his 

 vigour greater. Within a week he broke down quite sud- 

 denly, and could neither work nor think. He refers to this 

 in the following letter : — 



Jermyn Street, Dec. 22, 1871. 



My dear Johnny — You are certainly improving. As a 

 practitioner in the use of cold steel myself, I have read your 

 letter in to-day's Nature, " mit Ehrfurcht und Bewunderung." 

 And the best evidence of the greatness of your achievement is 

 that it extracts this expression of admiration from a poor devil 

 whose brains and body are in a colloid state, and who is off to 

 Brighton for a day or two this afternoon. 



God be with thee, my son, and strengthen the contents of 

 thy gall-bladder ! — Ever thine, T. H. Huxley. 



PS. — Seriously, I am glad that at last a protest has been 

 raised against the process of anonymous self-praise to which 

 our friend is given. I spoke to Smith the other day about that 

 dose of it in the " Quarterly " article on Spirit-rapping. 



