Huxley's Life and Work xiii 



to all the problems of Kfe." In other words, Huxley 

 spent his life in forwarding science and education. He 

 was not only a naturalist but a sociologist. Was he 

 greater, now, in discovery or in application? He was 

 great in both but greater, we think, in the latter. Let 

 us see. 



As a scientific discoverer, Huxley can never rank with 

 Newton or Darwin. But if these are immortals of the 

 first rank, Huxley is as certainly an immortal of the second 

 rank. It is interesting to see how eager Darwin was 

 to know how The Origin of Species, Darwin's greatest 

 work, would impress Huxley. Darwin called Huxley his 

 " general agent," and Huxley called himself " Darwin's 

 bulldog." The Origin of Species appeared in 1859 and 

 Darwin wrote: " If I can convert Huxley I shall be con- 

 tent." With one or two reservations, Huxley was con- 

 verted and championed the book the rest of his life. But 

 this association with Darwin and with Darwin's work has 

 caused most readers to overlook Huxley's own contribu- 

 tions to science. These may be summarized in untechnical 

 language under five heads. 



We have already seen that at the age of twenty Huxley 

 discovered an unknown layer in the human hair now 

 known by his name. More important, however, than 

 "Huxley's layer" was his paper published in 1849 on 

 The Anatomy and the Affinities of the Family of the 

 Medusa. The medusae are jelly-fishes and their classifica- 

 tion had been in a state of chaos till Huxley succeeded in 

 finding " unity of plan " not only in them but in the entire 

 family to which they belong. He discovered that all 

 medusae are built up of two cell-layers, two " foundation- 

 membranes," inclosing a stomach cavity. He did not 

 know then how his discovery would help to prepare the 

 way for Darwin's work. Scientists, however, knew al- 



