Ɛpsilon

From T. H. Huxley   31 March 1874

4 Marlborough Place | NW

March 31. 1874

My dear Darwin

The brain business is more than half done & I will soon polish it off and send it to you—1 We are going down to Folkestone for a week on Thursday & I shall take it with me

I do not know what is doing about Dohrn’s business at present   Foster took it in hand but the last time I heard he was waiting for reports from Dew & Balfour2

You have been very generous as always;3 & I hope that other folk may follow your example but like yourself I am not sanguine

I have had an awfully tempting offer to go to Yankee land on a lecturing expedition and I am seriously thinking of making an experiment next spring4

The chance of clearing two or three thousand pounds in as many months is not to be sneezed at by a père de famille— I am getting sick of the state of things here

Ever | Yours faithfully | T. H. Huxley

I have heard no more about the spirit photographs!5

1
Huxley was writing a note on the resemblances and differences between the brains of apes and humans to be included in Descent 2d ed. (see letter to T. H. Huxley, 28 March [1874] and n. 3).
2
Michael Foster was attempting to find ways to help Anton Dohrn fund the Naples Zoological Station; Foster’s students, Alfred George Dew-Smith and Francis Maitland Balfour, were carrying out research at the station (see letter from T. H. Huxley, 6 March 1874 and n. 4).
3
CD had sent Dohrn a donation of £120 (see letter to T. H. Huxley, 28 March [1874]).
4
Huxley did not undertake his lecture tour of America until August 1876 (L. Huxley ed. 1900, 1: 459–69; Jensen 1988).
5
Huxley had attended a séance hosted by Hensleigh Wedgwood (letter from T. H. Huxley, 27 January 1874 and n. 2), after which Wedgwood sent him some spirit photographs; Huxley had responded by showing how the effect might have been produced by mechanical means (L. Huxley ed. 1900, 1: 419).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9380,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9380