Ever yours faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

31 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, May 19, 1875.

My dear Darwin,

Playfair has sent a copy of his bill to me, and I am sorry to find that its present wording is such as to render it very unacceptable to all teachers of physiology.  In discussing the draught with Litchfield I recollect that I insisted strongly on the necessity of allowing demonstrations to students, but I agreed that it would be sufficient to permit such demonstrations only as could be performed under anaesthetics.

The second clause of the bill, however, by the words “for the purpose of new scientific discovery and for no other purpose,” absolutely prohibits any kind of demonstration.  It would debar me from showing the circulation in the web of a frog’s foot or from exhibiting the pulsations of the heart in a decapitated frog.

And by its secondary effect it would prohibit discovery.  Who is to be able to make discoveries unless he knows of his own knowledge what has been already made out?  It might as well be ruled that a chemical student should begin with organic analysis.

Surely Burdon Sanderson did not see the draft of the bill as it now stands.  The Professors here are up in arms about it, and as the papers have associated my name with the bill I shall have to repudiate it publicly unless something can be done.  But what in the world is to be done?  I have not written to Playfair yet, and shall wait to hear from you before I do.  I have an excellent class here, 340 odd, and like the work.  Best regards to Mrs. Darwin.

Ever yours faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

31 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh, June 5, 1875.

My dear Darwin,

I see I have forgotten to return Playfair’s letter, which I enclose.  He sent me a copy of his last letter to you, but it did not reach me till some days after my return from London.  In the meanwhile I saw him and Lord Cardwell at the House of Commons on Friday (last week).

Playfair seems rather disgusted at our pronunciamento against the bill, and he declares that both Sanderson and Sharpey assented to it.  What they were dreaming about I cannot imagine.  To say that no man shall experiment except for purpose of original discovery is about as reasonable as to ordain that no man shall swim unless he means to go from Dover to Calais.

However the Commission is to be issued, and it is everything to gain time and let the present madness subside a little.  I vowed I would never be a member of another Commission if I could help it, but I suppose I shall have to serve on this.

I am very busy with my lectures, and am nearly half through.  I shall not be sorry when they are over, as I have been grinding away now since last October.

With kindest regards to Mrs. Darwin, ever yours very faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

[He was duly asked to serve on the Commission.  Though his lectures in Edinburgh prevented him from attending till the end of July no difficulty was made over this, as the first meetings of the Commission, which began on June 30, were to be devoted to taking the less controversial evidence.  In accepting his nomination he wrote to Mr. Cross (afterwards Lord Cross), at that time Home Secretary:—­]