HUXLEY'S LIFE AND WORK. 351 



as well as Martineau, Tennyson, Browning, K. H. Hutton, W. Bagehot, 

 Frederic Harrison, Leslie Stephen, Sir J. Stephen, Dr. Carpenter, Sir 

 W. Gull, W. R. Greg, James Hinton, Shadworth Hodgson, Lord Arthur 

 Russell, Sir Andrew Clark, Sir Alexander Grant, Mark Patteson and 

 W. K. Clifford, it will not be wondered that I looked forward to the 

 meetings with the greatest interest. I experienced also one of the 

 greatest surprises of my life. We all, I suppose, wondered who would 

 be the first President. No doubt what happened was that Roman 

 Catholics objected to Anglicans, Anglicans to Roman Catholics, both to 

 Nonconformists; and the different schools of metaphysics also presented 

 difficulties, so that finally, to my amazement, I found myself the first 

 President! The discussions were perfectly free, but perfectly friendly; 

 and I quite agree with Mr. H. Sidgwick, that Huxley was one of the 

 foremost, keenest and most interesting debaters, which, in such a com- 

 pany, is indeed no slight praise. 



We dined together, then a paper was read, which had generally been 

 circulated beforehand, and then it was freely discussed, the author re- 

 sponding at the close. Huxley contributed several papers, but his main 

 contribution to the interest of the Society was his extraordinary ability 

 and clearness in debate. 



His metaphysical studies led to his work on Hume and his memoirs 

 on the writings of Descartes. 



One of his most interesting treatises is a criticism of Descartes' 

 theory of animal automatism. Descartes was not only a great philoso- 

 pher, but also a great naturalist, and we owe to him the definite alloca- 

 tion of all the phenomena of consciousness to the brain. This was a 

 great step in science, but, just because Descartes' views have been so 

 completely incorporated with everyday thought, few of us realize how 

 recently it was supposed that the passions were seated in the apparatuses 

 of organic life. Even now we speak of the heart rather than the brain 

 in describing character. 



Descartes, as is known, was much puzzled as to the function of one 

 part of the brain — a small, pear-shaped body about the size of a nut, 

 and deeply seated. Known as the pineal gland, he suggested that it was 

 the seat of the soul; but it is now regarded, and apparently on solid 

 grounds, as the remains of the optic lobe of a central eye once possessed 

 by our far-away ancestors, and still found in some animals, as, for in- 

 stance, in certain lizards. Descartes was much impressed by the move- 

 ments which are independent of consciousness or volition, and known 

 as reflex actions — such, for instance, as the winking of the eye or the 

 movement of the leg if the sole of the foot is touched. This takes place 

 equally if, by any injury to the spinal marrow, the sensation in the legs 

 has been destroyed. 



Such movements appear to be more frequent among lower animals, 



