It was agreed that they should go at once to Gibraltar by the P. and O., and report progress when he gets there.  If strong enough he is to go on a cruise round the Mediterranean, and if he improves by this he is to go away for a year to Bogota (in South America), which appears to be a favourable climate for such cases as his.

If he gets worse he can but return.  I have done my best to impress upon him and his wife the necessity of extreme care, and I hope they will be wise.

It is very pleasant to find how good and cordial everybody is, helpful in word and deed to the poor young people.  I know it will rejoice the cockles of your generous old heart to hear it.

As for yourself, I trust you are mending and allowing yourself to be taken care of by your household goddess.

With our united love to her and yourself,

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

I sent your cheque to Yeo.

May, 1878.

My dear Tyndall,

You were very much wanted on Saturday, as your wife will have told you, but for all that I would not have had you come on any account.  You want a thorough long rest and freedom from excitement of all sorts, and I am rejoiced to hear that you are going out of the hurly-burly of London as soon as possible; and, not to be uncivil, I do hope you will stay away as long as possible, and not be deluded into taking up anything exciting as soon as you feel lively again among your mountains.

Pray give up Dublin.  If you don’t, I declare I will try if I have enough influence with the council to get you turned out of your office of Lecturer, and superseded.

Do seriously consider this, as you will be undoing the good results of your summer’s rest.  I believe your heart is as sound as your watch was when you went on your memorable slide [On the Piz Morteratsch; “Hours of Exercise in the Alps” by J. Tyndall chapter 19.], but if you go slithering down avalanches of work and worry you can’t always expect to pick up “the little creature” none the worse.  The apparatus is by one of the best makers, but it has been some years in use, and can’t be expected to stand rough work.

You will be glad to hear that we had cheerier news of Clifford on Saturday.  He was distinctly better, and setting out on his Mediterranean voyage.

Ever yours very faithfully,

T.H.  Huxley.

[A birthday letter to his son concludes the year:—­]

4 Marlborough Place, N.W., December 10, 1878.

Your mother reminds me that to-morrow is your eighteenth birthday, and though I know that my “happy returns” will reach you a few hours too late, I cannot but send them.

You are touching manhood now, my dear laddie, and I trust that as a man your mother and I may always find reason to regard you as we have done throughout your boyhood.

The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn peace and self-respect.  I have not troubled you much with paternal didactics—­but that bit is “ower true” and worth thinking over.