Down, | Beckenham, Kent.
Monday | Nov 8. | 1875
My dear Leo.
I have seen your letter to George & I gather that Malta is not much of a place except for the town & port & climate. I expect that he will get to you in the winter— He is better & working very hard at his sticky stuff. We went up to [Q]. on Wed. & found Eras. so well we had a v. pleasant mg. F. went to the Vivi Commission at 2. Lord Cardwell came to the door to receive him & he was treated like a Duke
They only wanted him to repeat what he had said in his letter (a sort of confession of faith about the claims of physiology & the duty of humanity) & he had hardly a word more to add, so that it was over in 10 m. Lord C. coming to the door again & thanking him. It was a great compliment to his opinion wanting to have it put upon the minutes. Frank had been m. vexed at hearing that Klein had given out most disgusting sentiments on his exam. (viz. that he did not use [anoethetics] to save suffering but to keep the creatures quiet). He had a talk with Klein & it seems the examiners put him into such a rage he must have said this out of bravado. He seemed utterly astonished to hear that your F. wd think the worse of him for this sentiment. However he was calumniating himself as he told Fr. that he had been so indignant at a Phys. for not using anesthetics that he wd have nothing to do w. him & remonstrated. This was all told in confidence so you must not mention names, & you may as well not notice any thing about it to me as Fr. has been heartily vexed– – Huxley said this speech made a profound impression & damaged the phys. side more than all the fanatics put together. Mabel came on Friday & we were sorry not to have Horace, but he was kept at Brighton on Sunday by a visit from Dickie. Fr. & Amy are gone to Lidwells & I hope Major K. is a good deal better—
Mabel bears the absence of all male kind (for I don't call R. a male kind) w. great [philosophy]
No more news today.
yours E.D.
F. is pretty well—
Remember to look up. Jenny in the Abyssinia I believe—
Status: Draft transcription
This transcript was produced as a side-product of the work of the Darwin Correspondence Project and may not have been proofread to the DCP’s usual standards.
Please cite as “FL-1046,” in Ɛpsilon: The Darwin Family Letters Collection accessed on