19 OCTOBER 1901, Page 14

LORD KELVIN AND PROFESSOR HUXLEY.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")

Srn,—It has been brought to my notice that some of my remarks in the review of Huxley's "Scientific Memoirs," Vol. III., which you published on October 5th, might be con- strued as implying that Lord Kelvin's brilliant investiga- tions as to the age of the habitable earth were open to question. Permit me to say that nothing could be farther from my intention than in any way to throw a shadow on the o,dmine tion and reverence with which all students of Nature now regard Lord Kelvin's incomparable work. But Huxley succeeded, I think, in showing that the geology of his day was not necessarily "in direct opposition to the principles of natural philosophy" because it held the agnostic position on a question which was dim enough in 1869 to all but a few, but which has now been brought into the clear daylight of accepted science by workers of whom Lord Kelvin is the most able and eminent. Thetis all I meant.—I am, Sir, b.,

YOITR REVIEWER.