From T. H. Huxley 2 July 1863
Jermyn St
July 2nd | 1863
My dear Darwin
I am horridly loth to say that I cannot do anything you want done—& partly for that reason & partly because we have been very busy here with some new arrangements during the last day or two, I did not at once reply to your note1
I am afraid, however, I cannot undertake any sort of new work— In spite of working like a horse (or if you prefer it like an ass) I find myself scandalously in arrear—and I shall get into terrible hot water if I do not clear off some things that have been hanging about me for months & years
If you will send me up the specimens, however, I will ask Flower2 (whom I see constantly) to examine them for you— The examination will be no great trouble and I am ashamed to make a fuss about doing it—but I have sworn a big oath to take no fresh work, great or small, until certain things are done—
I wake up in the morning with somebody saying in my ear, A, is not done, & B, is not done & C is not done & D, is not done &c &c.—and a feeling like a fellow whose duns are all in the street waiting for him—
By the way you ask me what I am doing now—so I will just enumerate some of the A, B, & C; aforesaid—
A. Editing Lectures on Vertebrate skull & bringing them out in the Medical Times3
B. Editing & rewriting Lectures on Elementary Physiology—just delivered here & reported as I went along—4
C. Thinking of my course of 24 Lectures on the Mammalia at Coll. Surgeons in next spring & making investigations bearing on the same.5
D. Thinking of & working at a Manual of Comparative Anatomy (may it be d——d) which I have had in hand these seven years6
E. Getting heaps of remains of new Labyrinthodonts from the Glasgow coal field which have to be described7
F. working at a memoir on Glyptodon based on a new & almost entire specimen at the College of Surgeons8
G. preparing a new Decade upon Fossil fishes for this place9
H. knowing that I ought to have written long ago a description of a lot of most interesting Indian fossils sent to me by Oldham—10
I. being blown at by Hooker for doing nothing for the Natural History Review11
K. being bothered by sundry Editors—just to write articles “which you know you can knock off in a moment”
L. Consciousness of having left unwritten letters which ought to have been written long ago especially to C. Darwin—
M. General worry & botheration Ten or twelve people taking up my time all day— about their own affairs—
N. O. P. Q R. S T. U. V. W. X. Y. Z
Societies—
Clubs—
Dinners— Evening parties & all the apparatus for wasting time called ‘Society’
Colenso-ism & botheration about Moses—12
Finally pestered to death in public & private because I am supposed to be what they call a “Darwinian”!
If that is not enough I could exhaust the Greek alphabet for heads in addition
I am very glad to hear that Wyman thinks well of my book—as he is very competent to judge—13 I hear it is republished in America—but I suppose I shall get nothing out of it.—14
The man who does the virulence in the Edinburgh & Anthropological is a jackal of Owen’s by the name of C. Carter Blake—15 The same whom Falconer shewed up in the Elephant paper16
As a return for the impertinence against Rolleston & myself which that absurd Anthropological Society sanctioned—I sent them back the Diploma of Honorary Fellowship—by means of which after I had refused to join them in any other way they had lugged me in—17—
Owen is damning himself as fast as is good for us— The Aye-Aye wind up is the greatest bosh I ever read—18
Lyell is not as bold as I should have wished. But it is a great thing for a man past sixty to have eaten as much of his leek as he has19
My wife is better than I have seen her for years—but going to increase the population again in September I am sorry to say—20 We have been grieved to get poor accounts of you occasionally I hope Mrs Darwin is well
Ever yours faithfully | T H Huxley
Footnotes
Bibliography
Chambers: The Chambers dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers. 1998.
Colenso, John William. 1862–79. The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua critically examined. 5 vols. London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Desmond, Adrian. 1994–7. Huxley. 2 vols. London: Michael Joseph.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
Flett, John Smith. 1937. The first hundred years of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Sarjeant, William A. S. 1980–96. Geologists and the history of geology: an international bibliography. 10 vols. including supplements. London: Macmillan. Malabar, Fla.: Robert E. Krieger Publishing.
Stocking, George W., Jr. 1987. Victorian anthropology. New York: The Free Press. London: Collier Macmillan.
Tebbel, John. 1972. A history of book publishing in the United States. Vol. 1, The creation of an industry, 1630–1865. New York and London: R. R. Bowker.
Summary
Too busy to examine specimen. Will ask W. H. Flower to do it. Long catalogue of what keeps him busy and concerned.
C. Carter Blake, "a jackal of Owen’s", is the reviewer in Edinburgh Review and Anthropological Review [see 4223]. Has sent back his diploma of Hon. Fellowship to Anthropological Society.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4228
- From
- Thomas Henry Huxley
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Jermyn St
- Source of text
- DAR 166: 298
- Physical description
- ALS 8pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4228,” accessed on 15 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4228.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11