c, 6 SUBTLE INFL UENCES OF HUXLE Y. 



matter, and albuminous matter consists of four elements, 

 and these four elements possess certain properties, by which 

 properties all differences between plants and worms and 

 men are to be accounted for. Although Huxley would 

 probably admit that a worm was not a man, he would tell 

 us that by " subtle influences" and "under sundry circum- 

 stances," the one thing might be easily converted into the 

 other, and not by such nonsensical fictions as " vitality," 

 which can neither be weighed, measured, nor conceived. 

 But, in science, it is not fair to indulge in word-tricks and 

 equivocal illustrations, nor is it justifiable to make use of mis- 

 leading similes. After referring to the anatomy of the horse, 

 Huxley says, in his " Lectures to Working Men," page 1 1, 

 " Hitherto we have, as it were, been looking at a steam- 

 engine with the fires out and nothing in the boiler ; (!) but the 

 body of the living animal is a beautifully formed machine? 

 And it would be easy to point out in many of his writings 

 vague remarks of the same sort, with similes calculated rather 

 to mislead than to assist the judgment and to increase rather 

 than to lessen the difficulties experienced by students. 

 Take, for example, the far-fetched observations in the first 

 number of the "Academy," under the heading "Science and 

 Philosophy," page 13, about the kitchen clock which cries 

 " cuckoo," and shows the phases of the moon, and the 

 death-watch machine, " a learned and intelligent student of 

 its works," ticking like the clock in the clock case. We are 

 told to " substitute 'cosmic vapour' for ' clock,' and 'mole- 

 cules' for ' works,' and the application of the argument is 

 obvious " (!) The argument relates to the forces possessed 

 by the molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of the 

 universe was composed, by the mutual interaction of 



