My dear Huxley

I have just had a letter from P. Rothenburg of Glasgow about Häckel’s (I suppose the above R. is a personal friend of H.) wishing to go on a scientific expedition for 6 months to Ceylon,—having been refused a small grant by the Berlin Government,—& having applied to Lubbock to know whether our R. Soc^y. would aid him.—¹ I have heard nothing about all this. But Rothenburg urges me to assist, & the sole thing which I could think of was to inform you, though you will probably have heard of it before.— It has been an old conviction of mine (quite independently of Hackel’s case) that the Government Grant could not be better spent than in occasionally aiding a scientific man visiting some distant country.— I once spoke to this effect to Hooker, who demurred, but he did not alter my conviction.²

I have a bothering lot of letters to answer, so no more.—

Ever yours | C. Darwin

I will tell to Rothenburg that I have written to you.—³