1876 LETTER TO PROFESSOR MARSH 503 



ordinary busy life absorbed him again. He did not fail to 

 give his London audiences the results of the recent dis- 

 coveries in American paleontology, and on December 4 

 delivered a lecture at the London Institution, " On Recent 

 Additions to the Knowledge of the Pedigree of the Horse." 

 In connection with this he writes to Professor Marsh : — 



4 Marlborough Place, London, N.W., 

 Dec. 2-], 1876. 



My dear Marsh — I hope you do not think it remiss of me 

 that I have not written to you since my return, but you will 

 understand that I plunged into a coil of work, and will forgive 

 me. But I do not mean to let the year slip away without sending 

 you all our good wishes for its successor — which I hope will not 

 vanish without seeing you among us. 



I blew your trumpet the other day at the London Institution 

 in a lecture about the Horse question. I did not know then that 

 you had got another step back as I see you have by the note to 

 my last lecture, which Youmans has just sent me. 



I must thank you very heartily for the pains you have taken 

 over the woodcuts of the lectures. It is a great improvement 

 to have the patterns of the grinders. 



I have promised to give a lecture at the Royal Institution 

 on the 2ist January next, and I am thinking of discoursing on 

 the Birds with teeth. Have you anything new to tell on that 

 subject? I have implicit faith in the inexhaustibility of the 

 contents of those boxes. 



Our voyage home was not so successful as that out. The 

 weather was cold and I got a chill which laid me up for several 

 days, in fact I was not well for some weeks after my return. 

 But I am vigorous again now. 



Pray remember me kindly to all New Haven friends. My 

 wife joins with me in kindest regards and good wishes for the 

 new year. " Tell him we expect to see him next year." — I am, 

 yours very faithfully, T. H. Huxley. 



On December 16 he delivered a lecture " On the Study 

 of Biology," in connection with the Loan Collection of 

 Scientific Apparatus at South Kensington {Coll. Essays, iii. 

 262), dealing with the origin of the name Biology, its re- 

 lation to Sociology — " we have allowed that province of 

 Biology to become autonomous ; but I should like you to 



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