HUXLEY'S LIFE AND WORK. 341 



character in different species, and is excessively quaint and curious; but 

 at the close the thirst for blood, which has been temporarily over- 

 mastered by an even stronger passion, bursts out with irresistible fury, 

 she attacks her lover and, if he be not on the watch and does not succeed 

 in making his escape, ends by destroying and sucking him dry. In 

 moving a vote of thanks to the author, Huxley ended some interesting 

 remarks by the observation that this closing scene was the most extraor- 

 dinary form of marriage settlements of which he had ever heard. 



He seemed also to draw out the wit of others. At the York 'Jubilee' 

 meeting of the British Association, he and I strolled down in the after- 

 noon to the Minster. At the entrance we met Prof. H. J. Smith, who 

 made a mock movement of surprise. Huxley said: "You seem surprised 

 to see me here." "Well," said Smith hesitatingly, "not exactly, but it 

 would have been on one of the pinnacles, you know." 



His letters were full of fun. Speaking of Siena in one of his letters, 

 contained in Mr. Leonard Huxley's excellent Life of his father, he says: 

 "The town is the quaintest place imaginable, built of narrow streets on 

 several hills to start with, and then apparently stirred up with a poker 

 to prevent monotony of effect." 



And again, writing from Florence: 



"We had a morning at the Uffizi the other day, and came back 

 minds enlarged and backs broken. To-morrow we contemplate attack- 

 ing the Pitti, and doubt not the result will be similar. By the end of 

 the week our minds will probably be so large, and the small of the back 

 so small, that we should probably break if we stayed any longer, so think 

 it prudent to be off to Venice." 



By degrees public duties and honors accumulated on him more and 

 more. He was Secretary, and afterwards President, of the Eoyal 

 Society, President of the Geological and of the Ethnological Societies, 

 Hunterian Professor from 1863 to 1870, a Trustee of the British 

 Museum, Dean of the Eoyal College of Science, President of the British 

 Association, Inspector of Fisheries, Member of Senate of the University 

 of London, member of no less than ten Royal Commissions, in addition 

 to which he gave many lectures at the Eoyal Institution and elsewhere, 

 besides, of course, all those which formed a part of his official duties. 



In 1892 he was made a member of the Privy Council, an unwonted 

 but generally welcome recognition of the services which science renders 

 to the community. 



As already mentioned, he was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society 

 in 1851. He received a Eoyal Medal in 1852, the Copley in 1888, and 

 the Darwin Medal in 1894. 



Apart from his professional and administrative duties, Huxley's 

 work falls into three principal divisions — Science, Education and Meta- 

 physics. 



