482 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxx 



I assure you I have not forgotten the brief interview to 

 which you refer, and I have often regretted that the hurry and 

 worry of life (which increases with the square of your distance 

 from youth) never allowed me to take advantage of your kind 

 father's invitation to become better acquainted with him and 

 his. I found his card in Jermyn Street when I returned last 

 year, with a pencilled request that I would call on him at West- 

 minster. 



I meant to do so, but the whirl of things delayed me until, 

 as I bitterly regret, it was too late. 



I am not sure that I have any important letter of your 

 father's but one, written to me some fifteen years ago, on the 

 occasion of the death of a child who was then my only son. It 

 was in reply to a letter of my own written in a humour of 

 savage grief. Most likely he burned the letter, and his reply 

 would be hardly intelligible without it. Moreover, I am not at 

 all sure that I can lay my hands upon your father's letter in a 

 certain chaos of papers which I have never had the courage to 

 face for years. But if you wish I will try. 



I am very grieved to hear of Mrs. Kingsley's indisposition. 

 Pray make my kindest remembrances to her, and believe me 

 yours very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



PS. — By the way, letters addressed to my private residence, 



4 Marlborough Place, N.W., 



are sure not to be delayed. And I have another reason for 

 giving the address — the hope that when you come to Town 

 you will let my wife and daughters make your acquaintance. 



His continued interest in the germ-theory and the ques- 

 tion of the origin of life (Address at the British Association, 

 1870, see p. 355, sq.), appears from the following : — 



4 Marlborough Place, Oct. 15, 1875. 

 My dear Tyndall — Will you bring with you to the x to- 

 morrow a little bottle full of fluid containing the bacteria you 

 have found developed in your infusions? I mean a good char- 

 acteristic specimen. It will be useful to you, I think, if I de- 

 termine the forms with my own microscope, and make drawings 

 of them which you can use. — Ever yours, 



T. H. Huxley. 

 I can't tell you how delighted I was with the experiments. 



