1872-82 LETTER FROM O. W. HOLMES 237 



slight, my museum in that department consist- 

 ing of a single trilobite given me by Professor 

 Gray the botanist, and which I keep before 

 my eyes (mounted in the form of a paper-weight) 

 to make the aeternitas a parte ante in some 

 measure palpable to my apprehension, and to cool 

 my egoism when it gets too warm with exercise 

 and needs to be reminded that its subject is one 

 in a long procession. But I have been a lecturer 

 on human anatomy for more than thirty years, 

 and so can understand your paper 9 and see its 

 interest, for, without having made an express 

 study of comparative anatomy, I have necessarily 

 rubbed against it so much and from so many 

 points of view that I find myself in possession of 

 a certain amount of knowledge, hardly knowing 

 how I came by it. . . . I have a reminiscence 

 which will call up a name well known to you. In 

 the year 1834, I think it was, that I visited 

 London and carried a letter to your father-in-law, 

 Mr. Clift, from an old fellow-student. He received 

 me very kindly, and I have a distinct recollection 

 of passing an evening most agreeably at his 

 house. I was for many years — that is, during his 

 whole residence in America — on intimate terms of 

 friendship with Louis Agassiz, being one of the 

 four whom he had as associates under the name 



9 ' On the Occurrence in North England' {Annals and Maga- 

 America of Rare Extinct Verte- zine of Natural History). 

 brates found fragmentarily in 



