Ixi 



though he had no serious illness, he from time to time, from his youth 

 upward, suffered from digestive troubles, and again and again 

 abnormal products of the corporeal laboratory, running riot in his 

 blood, gave rise to feelings of gloomy depression and lassitude, 

 unfitting him for intellectual work. All this, however, he could hide 

 from the world ; but he could not hide the more serious failure of his 

 health which the intellectual strain of so many duties of such different 

 kinds now brought upon him, and in 1872 he was induced to take a 

 long holiday in a visit to Egypt. He returned much refreshed, and, 

 though his intimate friends confessed to themselves that, in point of 

 bodily vigour, he was not the man he had been, the outside world saw 

 but little evidence of this. In 1872 he had been elected Lord Rector 

 of Aberdeen University, and in February, 1874, he delivered, upon 

 his installation, his inaugural address. In the summers of 1875-76, 

 he delivered at the University of Edinburgh the courses of lectures 

 on Natural History, in the place of Wyville Thomson, who was absent 

 on the " Challenger " expedition. In 1876 he paid a visit to America, 

 delivering an address on " University Education," at Baltimore, on 

 the occasion of the -formal opening of the Johns Hopkins University, 

 and giving three lectures on Evolution, at New York. His stay in 

 the States had somewhat of the nature of a royal progress, for what- 

 ever city or town he visited, unless he managed to slip in unknown, 

 something in the public way, an address or a reception, was expected 

 of him. 



In spite of all the professional and public demands made upon 

 him — and to those already mentioned may be added those of Trustee 

 of the British Museum, to which office he was elected in 1887, 

 and the serving on Royal or other Commissions* — in spite of his now 

 acknowledged fame as one who united profound scientific know- 

 ledge with an incisive power of speech sparkling with wit, such as 

 few men of any kind of career possessed, leading his presence to be 

 sought wherever it could be gained, and it was freely given whenever 

 the advance of natural knowledge and the progress of sound thought 

 seemed to him to call for it, he still found some hours left for his 

 anatomical investigations. His most important contributions during 



* These were — (1) Royal Commission on the Operation of Acts relating to 

 Trawling for Herrings on the Coast of Scotland, 1862. (2) Royal Commission to 

 enquire into the Sea Fisheries of the United Kingdom, 1864-65. (3) Commission 

 on the Royal College of Science for Ireland, 1866. (4) Commission on Science 

 and Art Instruction in Ireland, 1868. (5) Royal Commission upon the Adminis- 

 tration and Operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts, 1870-71. (6) Royal Com- 

 mission on Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science, 1870-75. 

 (7) Royal Commission on the Practice of subjecting Live Animals to Experiments 

 for Scientific Purposes, 1876. (8) Royal Commission to enquire into the 

 Universities of Scotland, 1876-78. (9) Royal Commission on the Medical Acts, 

 1881-82. (10) Royal Commission on Trawl, Net, and Beam Trawl Fishing, 1884. 

 VOL. LIX. h 



