thorship. The Z's (God save the
mark) thought it was Owen's! You may rely on it that it has made a deep
impression, and I am heartily glad that the subject and I owe you
this further obligation. But for God's sake, take care of your health;
remember that the brain takes years to rest, whilst the muscles take
only hours. There is poor Dana, to whom I used to preach by letter,
writes to me that my prophecies are come true: he is in Florence quite
done up, can read nothing and write nothing, and cannot talk for half an
hour. I noticed the "naughty sentence" (89/2. Mr. Huxley, after speaking
of the rudimental teeth of the whale, of rudimental jaws in insects
which never bite, and rudimental eyes in blind animals, goes on: "And
we would remind those who, ignorant of the facts, must be moved by
authority, that no one has asserted the incompetence of the doctrine
of final causes, in its application to physiology and anatomy, more
strongly than our own eminent anatomist, Professor Owen, who, speaking
of such cases, says ("On the Nature of Limbs," pages 39, 40), 'I think
it will be obvious that the principle of final adaptations fails to
satisfy all the conditions of the problem.'"--"The Times," December
26th, 1859.) about Owen, though my wife saw its bearing first. Farewell
you best and worst of men!

That sentence about the bird and the fish dinners charmed us. Lyell
wrote to me--style like yours.

Have you seen the slashing article of December 26th in the "Daily News,"
against my stealing from my "master," the author of the "Vestiges?"

LETTER 90. TO J.L.A. DE QUATREFAGES. [Undated]

How I should like to know whether Milne Edwards has read the copy which
I sent him, and whether he thinks I have made a pretty good case on
our side of the question. There is no naturalist in the world for whose
opinion I have so profound a respect. Of course I am not so silly as to
expect to change his opinion.

LETTER 91. TO C. LYELL.

(91/1. The date of this letter is doubtful; but as it evidently refers
to the 2nd edition of the "Origin," which appeared on January 7th, 1860,
we believe that December 9th, 1859, is right. The letter of Sedgwick's
is doubtless that given in the "Life and Letters," II., page 247; it is
there dated December 24th, 1859, but from other evidence it was probably
written on November 24th)

[December?] 9th [1859].

I send Sedgwick's letter; it is terribly muddled, and really the first
page seems almost chi