Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 3Huxley, Thomas Henry
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Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 3
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Huxley, Thomas Henry, 1825-1895; Naturalists -- England -- Biography
I wonder how you are prospering, whether you have vaccination or
anti-vaccination on the brain; or whether the gods have prospered you
so far as to send you on a holiday. We have been here since the
beginning of July. Monte Generoso proved lovely--but electrical. We had
on the average three thunderstorms every two days. Bellagio was as hot
as the tropics, and we stayed only a day, and came on here--where,
whatever else may happen, it is never too hot. The weather has been
good and I have profited immensely, and at present I do not know
whether I have a heart or not. But I have to look very sharp after my
liver. H. Thompson, who has been here with his son Herbert (clever
fellow, by the way), treats the notion that I ever had a dilated heart
with scorn! Oh these doctors! they are worse than theologians.
[And again on August 31:--]
I walked eighteen miles three or four days ago, and I think nothing of
one or two thousand feet up! I hope this state of things will last at
the sea-level.
I am always glad to hear of and from you, but I have not been idle long
enough to forget what being busy means, so don't let your conscience
worry you about answering my letters.
...X. is, I am afraid, more or less of an ass. The opposition he and
his friends have been making to the Technical Bill is quite
unintelligible to me. Y. may be, and I rather think is, a knave, but he
is no fool; and if I mistake not he is minded to kick the ultra-radical
stool down now that he has mounted by it. Make friends of that Mammon
of unrighteousness and swamp the sentimentalists.
...I despise your insinuations. All my friends here have been
theological--Bishop, Chief Rabbi, and Catholic Professor. None of your
Maybrick discussors.
On June 25 he wrote to Professor Ray Lankester, enclosing a letter to
be read at a meeting called by the Lord Mayor, on July 1, to hear
statements from men of science with regard to the recent increase of
rabies in this country, and the efficiency of the treatment discovered
by M. Pasteur for the prevention of hydrophobia.
[I quote the latter from the report in "Nature" for July 4:--]
Monte Generoso, Tessin, Suisse, June 25, 1889.
My dear Lankester,
I enclose herewith a letter for the Lord Mayor and a cheque for 5
pounds as my subscription. I wish I could make the letter shorter, but
it is pretty much "pemmican" already. However, it does not much matter
being read if it only gets into print.
It is uncommonly good of the Lord Mayor to stand up for Science, in the
teeth of the row the anti-vivisection pack--dogs and doggesses--are
making.
May his shadow never be less.
We shall be off to the Maloja at the end of this week, if the weather
mends. Thunderstorms here every day, and sometimes two or three a day
for the last ten days.
Ever yours very faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
Monte Generoso, Switzerland, June 25, 1889.
My Lord Mayor,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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