150 



HUXLBY, THOMAS HENR7. 



pttestkm. My offlclal chief *t llanlar WM a very re- 

 markable pem-Ue lai.- - hardaon an 

 tnelUot nalurmlbt, and far famed M an Indomitable 

 irmveler. 



Month* passed, during which h; 

 WM apparently ignored, when suddmh 

 J..hn" (as the chief was styled), meeting Urn, 

 dsjHribed the eenrioe in whirh the "Kntth- 

 snake** WM about to be ordered : " He said that 

 Captain Owen Stanley, who was to command 

 the shin, had asked him to recommend an as- 

 sistant surgeon who knew something of science. 

 Would I like that! Of course I jumped at t ! 

 offer. * Very well, I give you leave ; go to Lon- 

 don at once and see Captain Stunl. 

 mw my future commander, who was very civil 

 to roe, and promised to ask that I should bo 

 appointed to hi* ship, as in due time I was." 

 Then followed four years of absence from home, 

 during which the Rattlesnake" surveyed some 

 of the passages round the coast of Australia 

 and explored the sea between that continent 

 ..-w Guinea, In the course of his vovage 

 Mr. Huxley made extensive observations of the 

 natural history of the sea, especially with refer- 

 ence to the anatomy of the mollusks and Medn- 

 so. He collected a great number of specimens, 

 and wrote several papers which he sent home. 

 Of these he says: 



During the four years of our absence I sent home 

 communication after communication to the Linmcan 

 Society, with the name mult as that obtained by 

 Noah when he tent the raven out of his ark. Tin -d 

 at lart of hearing nothing about them, I determined 

 to do or die, and in 1849 I drew up a more elaborate 

 paper and forwarded it to the Royal Society. This 

 WM my dove, if 1 had only known it But, owing to 

 the movement* of the whip. I hoard nothing of that 

 either until my return to England in the latter end of 

 the year 1850, when I found it was printed and pub- 

 Uahed, and that a huge packet of separate copies 

 awaited me. 



For three years after his return he continued 

 in the navy, and persistently tried to persuade 

 his superiors to contribute to the expense of 

 publishing the scientific results of the expedi- 

 tion. At last, weary of his efforts, the Admiralty 

 ordered him to join a ship, " which thing," he 

 says, M I declined to do," and he resigned. 



I desired to obtain a professorship of either physi- 

 ology or comparative anatomy, and an vacancies oc- 

 curred I applied, but in vain. My friend Prof. Tyn- 

 dall and I were candidate* at the same time he* for 

 the chair of Physic*, and 1 for that of Natural II i-t< >ry 

 in the University of Toronto, which, fortunately, aa 

 it tamed oat, would not look at either of us. I say 

 fortunately, not from any lack of respect for Toronto, 

 but because I noon made up my mind that London 

 WM the place for me, and hence I have steadily ,i,- 

 eliaed the inducement* to leave it which have at 

 various tinea been offered. 



In 1854 his friend Edward Forbes resigned 

 from the place of paleontologist to the Geolog- 

 ical Survey and from the lectureship on natu- 

 ral history in the Royal School of Mines. "I 

 refused the former point-blank," says Huxley, 

 and accepted the latter only provisional Iv, 

 wring that I did not care for fossils and that I 

 skoold give up natural history as soon as I 

 could pet a physiological post But I held the 

 office for thirty-one Tears, and a large part of 

 my work hat bean paLeontological." 



Meanwhile he hod begun to attain a standing 

 lists, il.- irai made a fellow .-r tho 



Royal Son, -iv in .Inn.-. 1S.-.1. and in 1 

 its medals was . : m-.n him. I: 



tin- Royal Society published the ^-i.-nii- 

 suits of his expedition, under tin- till,- ,,f 

 "Oceanic Hydrazoa: A Description of the 

 porkUa and Phyiophorida'. Thu : 



tlu- memorable di-< -n-- i.-n ,,11 |> a r\vm at tin- n\. 

 ford meeting of tin* HritMi A ormtion n 

 Michael Foster, his friend for forty \c;r 

 scribes the event in these words : 



The bishop ; \\illH-rforce] had spok. 

 loudly from time to time during hi.s upeeeh. 

 down amid rapturous applause, ladies v. 

 handkerchiefs with great enthusiasm, and ii 

 dead silence, broken merely l.y greetings 

 eomintf only J'rim the lew who knew, seci 

 nothing. Huxley, then well-ni^h iinki 

 the narrow circle of scietititic workers, began 

 j.ly. A c-heiT. ehielly lrnn u kn<t of \ 

 the audience hearty, but seeming scant 

 fewness of those who gave it. and almost angri]j 

 resented by some welcomed the 

 Then as. slowly and measured at : 

 and with more vigor later, stroke followed 

 the circle of cheers grew wider at 

 the speaker's last words were crowned with 

 plause falling not far short of, indeed equal i; 

 whieh hod gone before an applause 

 genuine in its recognition that a strong in.. 

 arisen among the biologists of England. 



To the scientific reputation that he 1 

 ready achieved he thus added one of a 

 popular character, and then -after he took 

 among the great men of England. <>! 



{ointments followed his acceptance of lie 



in the Royal School of Mines. In ! 

 made Fullerian Professor of Physiology to t In- 

 Royal Institution, and during the sa 

 l)e.-jiine examiner in physiology and coi 

 live anatomy for the University of !..< 

 whirh place he held for seven years. IV- 

 to 1869 he was Hunterian Professor in th- 

 College of Surgeons, and during tin- als< 

 C. Wyville Thompson in 1875-'7<J he filled hi-. 

 place as Professor of Natural Ili-t-.ry in the 

 University of Edinburgli. In 1870 hi 

 elected a member of the London School 

 and in its deliberations he becan 

 prominent as the opponent of denomin 

 education, particularly that of the Of^^H 

 rhurrh. He retired from the board in 1*72. 

 owing to illness. In the. same year ! 

 elected Lord Rector of the Univers 

 deen, and in 1874 was installed. On th 

 of Frank Buckland. in 1H81, he was cal 

 the vacant post of Inspector General <>{ > 

 Fisheries. Failing health compelled I 

 tion from various appointments in 1885, I 

 the request of the lord president he i 

 his connection with the Normal SHioi.l 

 cnce and the Royal School of Mines a- 

 and Honorary Professor of Biology. li- 

 on many Government and royal cornm 

 among which were those relating t.. fi-h-ri--. 

 contagious diseases, vivisection, and Scottlp | 

 universities. 



The degree of Ph. D. was con fern d on him 

 by Breslau, that of M. IX by Wiirzbur- 

 if LL. I>. by Kdinbur^li arid ('ambri-: 

 1879, and that of D.C.L. by Oxford in 1886. 



