420 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xx.ii 



orthodox of Scotch cities, is a curious sign of the times. The 

 reason why they made such a tremendous fight for me, is I 

 believe, that I may carry on the reforms commenced by Grant 

 Duff, my predecessor. Unlike other Lord Rectors, he of Aber- 

 deen is a power and can practically govern the action of the 

 University during his tenure of office. 



I saw Pollock yesterday, and he says that they want you 

 back again. Curiously the same desire is epidemically prevalent 

 among your friends, not least here. — Ever yours, 



T. H. Huxley. 



In spite of his anxieties, his health was slowly improving 

 under careftil regimen. He published no scientific memoirs 

 this year, but in addition to his regular lectures, he was 

 working to finish his Manual of Invertebrate Anatomy and 

 his Introductory Primer, and to write his Aberdeen address ; 

 he was also at work upon the Pedigree of the Horse and on 

 Bodily Motion and Consciousness. He delivered a course to 

 teachers on Psychology and Physiology, and was much 

 occupied by the Royal Commission on .Science. As a gov- 

 ernor of Owens College he had various meetings to attend, 

 though his duties did not extend, as some of his friends 

 seem to have thought, to the appointment of a Professor 

 of Physiology there. 



My life (he writes to Sir Henry Roscoe) is becoming a 



burden to me because of . Why I do not know, but for 



some reason people have taken it into their heads that I have 

 something to do with appointments in Owens College, and no 

 fewer than three men of whose opinion I think highly have 

 spoken or written to me urging 's merits very strongly. 



This summer he again took a long holiday, thanks to 

 the generosity of his friends Csee p. 394), and with better 

 results. He went with his old friend Hooker to the Au- 

 vergne, walking, geologising, sketching and gradually dis- 

 carding doctor's orders. Sir Joseph Hooker has very kindly 

 written me a letter from which I give an account of this 

 trip : — 



It was during the many excursions we took together, either 

 by ourselves or with one of my boys, that I knew him best at his 

 best; and especially during one of several weeks' duration in 



