REMINISCENCES OP^ HUXLEY. 707 



As further elaborated ])y Huxley, the development al,ove the ccelen- 

 terate_ .stage goes on in divergent lines; stoppino- al.ruptlv in .some 

 directions, in others going- on to great lengths. Thus, in the direc- 

 tion taken by echinoderms, the physical possibilities are speedilv 

 exhausted, and we stop with .starfishes and holothurians. But among 

 Annuloida, as Huxley called them, there is moi-o tlexil)ilitv. and we 

 keep on till we reach the true Articulata in the highly .specialized 

 insects, arachnoids, and cru.staceans. It is still more interest! no- to 

 follow the Molluscoida, through which we arc led, on the one hand, to 

 the true Mollusca, reaching their culmination in the nautilus and octo- 

 pus, and on the other hand, to the Tunicata. and .so on to the verte- 

 brates. 



In the comparative anatomy of vertebrates, also, Huxley's achieve- 

 ments were in a high degree original and remarkable. First in impor- 

 tance, perhaps, was his classitication of birds, in which their tiuic 

 position and relationships were for the first time di.sclo.sed. Iluxlev 

 showed that all birds, extinct and living, must bearranged in three 

 groups, of Avhich the first is represented by the fossil archa^opteryx. 

 with its hand-like wing and lizard-like tail; the second by the ostricii 

 and its congeners, and the third by all other living birds. He further 

 demonstrated the peculiarly close relationship between birds and rep- 

 tiles through the extinct dinosaurs. In all these matters his power- 

 ful originality was shown in the methods by which these important 

 results were reached. Eveiy new investigation which he made seemed 

 to do something toward raising the study of biology to a highei- plane, 

 as, for example, his celebrated controver.sy with Owen on the true 

 nature of the vertebrate skull. The mention of Owen reminds us that 

 it was also Huxley who overthrew Cuvier's order of Quadrumana by 

 proving that apes are not four handed, Imt have two hands and two 

 feet; he showed that neither in limbs nor in biain does man present 

 difierences from other primates that are of higher than gen('ri(- valne. 

 Indeed, there were few corners of the animal world, past or picsent, 

 which Huxley did not at .some time or other overhaul, and to our 

 knowledge of which he did not make contributions of prime impor- 

 tance. The instances here cited may .serve to show the kind of work 

 which he did, but my mention of them is nece.s-sarily meager. In the 

 department of classification, the significance of which has been iui-reased 

 tenfold by the doctrine of evolution, his name must surely rank fore- 

 mo.st among the successors of the mighty Cuvier. 



Before 1860 the va.stness and accuracy of Huxley's ac«iuirements aiul 

 the soundness of his judgment were well understood by the men of 

 his profession, iasomuch that Charles Darwin, when about t.. publ.sh 

 The Origin of Species, .said that there were three men m L..gland 

 upon whose judgment he relied: if he could convince those three, he 

 could afford to wait for the rest. The three were Lyell, Hooker, and 



