At the end of April, as he tells his old friend Mantell, both these courses had been begun. The one at the Royal Institution was attended by an audience of about 250, that at King's College, after the opening lecture, dropped down to a class of fifteen. The falling-off was entirely due to the above-named resolution. For this the Council had assigned a reason, which, perhaps, was not a prudent course, for bodies of that kind, when they give reasons, often succeed only in "giving themselves away." The presence of ladies was forbidden, "because it diverted the attention of the young students, of whom," Lyell remarks sarcastically, "I had _two_ in number from the college last year and _two_ this." Had the Council stated boldly that the College did not appoint professors to lecture _urbi et orbi_, their policy, though it would have appeared a little selfish and might have proved shortsighted, would have been defensible, because the institution was founded for the education of a particular class. But the reason assigned was open to Lyell's retort, and gave the impression of unreality. It is not impossible that the decision was the result of secret "wire-pulling," and represented not so much a fear of the disturbing influence of the fair sex as a dread of the popularity of the subject. Geology was still regarded with grave distrust by a very large number of people, and King's College, it must be remembered, was founded in the supposed interests of the Church of England and in the hope of neutralising the effects of the unsectarian institution in Gower Street. Many of its supporters may have been characterised rather by the ardour of their dislikes than by the width of their sympathies, and may have put pressure on the Council, so that this body may have considered it safer to risk driving a popular man from their staff than to alienate an important section of their adherents and to expose the College to the danger of being charged with lending itself to heretical teaching.[54] The preparation of these lectures must have been attended with some difficulty, for Lyell writes that, "like all the world," he and his household--everyone except his wife--had been down with the influenza, which in that year was even more rampant in London than it has been in any of its recent visits. But, notwithstanding this and any other interruptions, the third and final volume of the "Principles of Geology" made its appearance in the month of May, 1833. FOOTNOTES: [29] Life, Letters, and Journals, vol. i. p. 255. [30] _Ut suprà_, p. 256.