shall not slip unused out of my hands.  The great difficulty in such a wide field is to choose an object.  In this point, however, I hope to be greatly assisted by the scientific folks, to many of whom I have already had introductions (Owen, Gray, Grant, Forbes), and this, I assure you, I look upon as by no means the least of the advantages I shall derive from being connected with the expedition.  I have been twice to town to see Captain Stanley.  He is a son of the Bishop of Norwich, is an exceedingly gentlemanly man, a thorough scientific enthusiast, and shows himself altogether very much disposed to forward my views in every possible way.  Being a scientific man himself he will take care to have the ship’s arrangements as far as possible in harmony with scientific pursuits—­a circumstance you would appreciate as highly as I do if you were as well acquainted as I now am with the ordinary opportunities of an assistant surgeon.  Furthermore, I am given to understand that if one does anything at all, promotion is almost certain.  So that altogether I am in a very fair way, and would snap my fingers at the Grand Turk.  Wharton Jones was delighted when I told him about my appointment.  Dim visions of strangely formed corpuscles seemed to cross his imagination like the ghosts of the kings in “Macbeth.”

        What seems his head
  The likeness of a nucleated cell has on.

[The law’s delays are proverbial, but on this occasion, as on the return of the “Rattlesnake,” the Admiralty seem to have been almost as provoking to the eager young surgeon as any lawyer could have been.  The appointment was promised in May; it was not made till October.  On the 6th of that month there is another letter to his sister, giving fuller particulars of his prospects on the voyage:—­]

My dearest Lizzie,

At last I have really got my appointment and joined my ship.  I was so completely disgusted with the many delays that had occurred that I made up my mind not to write to anybody again until I had my commission in my hand.  Henceforward, like another Jonah, my dwelling-place will be the “inwards” of the “Rattlesnake,” and upon the whole I really doubt whether Jonah was much worse accommodated, so far as room goes, than myself.  My total length, as you are aware, is considerable, 5 feet 11 inches, possibly, but the height of the lower deck of the “Rattlesnake,” which will be my especial location, is at the outside 4 feet 10 inches.  What I am to do with the superfluous foot I cannot divine.  Happily, however, there is a sort of skylight into the berth, so that I shall be able to sit with the body in it and my head out.