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The Right Hon. Thomas Henry Huxley. 



The Journal of our Association cannot be allowed to appear without 

 a few words in memory of our first President, the great naturalist and 

 leader of Science, whom we all mourn. 



Huxley's studies in marine biology, and his position as a Government 

 official, as well as his keen, practical common-sense, made his selection 

 as a member of two Government Commissions on Fisheries (in 1863 and 

 again in 1883) very appropriate. He did valuable work on those 

 Commissions, and in 1881 was appointed, by Sir William Harcourt, to be 

 Inspector of Salmon Fisheries. In 1883 he took an active part in the 

 work of the International Fisheries Exhibition, and emphasized in an 

 address given there, the fact that, whilst civilized man had brought all 

 the resources of science to bear on the " harvest of the land," little or 

 nothing had been done in the same spirit for the " harvest of the sea." 



When, in 188-1, the movement was set on foot for the foundation of 

 the Marine Biological Association, Huxley, as President of the Koyal 

 Society, took the chair at the important meeting in the rooms of that 

 Society, at which the Association was founded, and subsequently he 

 consented to be the first President of the Association. With that 

 thoroughness and conscientiousness which marked all his work, our 

 President, though no longer in full health and vigour, attended regularly 

 the meetings of the Council, and gave the most careful attention to the 

 very onerous business which had to be discharged in the early days of 

 the organization of the Association, and the building of the Plymouth 

 Laboratory. His advice and direction were always valued in the 

 highest degree by the Council, and his genial presence at our meetings 

 was greatly appreciated, especially in view of the fact that he travelled 

 from P>astbourne to London, in order to assist us. After seven years, 

 when the laboratory was in full working order, he asked us, on the 

 ground of his delicate health, to accept his resignation of the presidency, 

 which, reluctantly, we did. 



The successful launching of our Association, the assistance given to it 

 by the Government, by the City Companies, and by other public bodies, 

 are mainly due to the one fact, that we had at our head a man so 

 profoundly trusted as was I'rofessor Huxley. 



NEW SKKIES. — VOL. IV. NO. 1. B 



