If Darwin is right about natural selection—­the discovery of this vera causa sets him to my mind in a different region altogether from all his predecessors—­and I should no more call his doctrine a modification of Lamarck’s than I should call the Newtonian theory of the celestial motions a modification of the Ptolemaic system.  Ptolemy imagined a mode of explaining those motions.  Newton proved their necessity from the laws and a force demonstrably in operation.  If he is only right Darwin will, I think, take his place with such men as Harvey, and even if he is wrong his sobriety and accuracy of thought will put him on a far different level from Lamarck.  I want to make this clear to people.

I am disposed to agree with you about the “emasculate” and “uncircumcised"-partly for your reasons, partly because I believe it is an excellent rule always to erase anything that strikes one as particularly smart when writing it.  But it is a great piece of self-denial to abstain from expressing my peculiar antipathy to the people indicated, and I hope I shall be rewarded for the virtue.

As to the secondary causes I only wished to guard myself from being understood to imply that I had any comprehension of the meaning of the term.  If my phrase looks naughty I will alter it.  What I want is to be read, and therefore to give no unnecessary handle to the enemy.  There will be row enough whatever I do.

Our Commission here [The Fishery Commission] implicates us in an inquiry of some difficulty, and which involves the interests of a great many poor people.  I am afraid it will not leave me very much leisure.  But we are in the midst of a charming country, and the work is not unpleasant or uninteresting.  If the sun would only shine more than once a week it would be perfect.

With kind remembrances to Lady Lyell, believe me, faithfully yours,

T.H.  Huxley.

We shall be here for the next ten days at least.  But my wife will always know my whereabouts.

Jermyn Street, March 23, 1863.

My dear Sir Charles,

I suspect that the passage to which you refer must have been taken from my unrevised proofs, for it corresponds very nearly with what is written at page 97 of my book.

Flower has recently discovered that the Siamang’s brain affords an even more curious exception to the general rule than that of Mycetes, as the cerebral hemispheres leave part not only of the sides but of the hinder end of the cerebellum uncovered.

As it is one of the Anthropoid apes and yet differs in this respect far more widely from the gorilla than the gorilla differs from man, it offers a charming example of the value of cerebral characters.

Flower publishes a paper on the subject in the forthcoming number of the “N.  H. Review.”

Might it not be well to allude to the fact that the existence of the posterior lobe, posterior cornu, and hippocampus in the Orang has been publicly demonstrated to an audience of experts at the College of Surgeons?