162 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vi. 



to the high ground, the gnats stung them almost 

 to unmanageableness.' 



On August 30 he writes to tell his sisters that 

 he is back home again and ready for work at the 

 Museum. But he miscalculated his strength and 

 powers of endurance during his Highland tour, as 

 will be seen from a letter written to his friend 

 White Cooper : — 



' You know that my wife and I spent August 

 among the mountains of Ross and Inverness. 

 There I stalked with the stalkers, and walked or 

 scrambled with the grouse and ptarmigan-shooters, 

 and even waded the salmon streams, rejoicing in 

 my well-conserved vigour, outlasting younger 

 men. Foolish philosopher ! to think of doing at 

 sixty the feats of fifty or forty. Since our return 

 home I have become affected with loss of muscular 

 power — my arms more feeble than my legs. I've 

 not long been able to hold a pen, and have made, 

 I see, a shameful blot by mismanaging the ink- 

 stand.' 



Soon after his Highland holiday he wrote to 

 Alfred Tennyson to ask the ' quantity ' of the word 

 4 embryonic' He received the following reply 

 from Faringford : — 



' My dear Owen, — I suppose when you say 

 "quantity," like most English people, you mean 

 accent. "Embryonic" would be the accent, 

 though the syllable is a short one — embryonic, 

 not embryonic. As for " embryonal," I never 



