68 Thomas Henry Huxley 



the post required when interesting zoological problems 

 arose. His earliest notes were written in association 

 with his colleague, and consisted of technical descrip- 

 tions of some small fossils from the Downton Sand- 

 stones which were supposed to be fish-shields. The 

 peculiarities of structure presented by these aroused 

 his interest, and he began an elaborate series of investi- 

 gations upon palaeozoic fishes in general. Earlier 

 zoologists, such as the great Agassiz, had devoted 

 most of their attention to careful and exact description 

 of the different fossil fishes with which they became 

 acquainted. Huxley at once began to investigate the 

 relations that existed among the different kinds of 

 structure exhibited in the different fish. He laid down 

 the lines upon which future work has been conducted, 

 and, precisely as he did in the case of molluscs, he 

 started future investigators upon lines of research the 

 ends of which have not 3'et been reached. His work 

 upon Devonian Fishes, published in 1861, threw an en- 

 tirely new light upon the affinities of these creatures, 

 and still remains a standard work. 



He made a similar, although less important, series 

 of investigations upon some of the great extinct Crus- 

 tacea; but, perhaps, his most important palaeontological 

 work was done later, after he had been convinced by 

 Darwin of the fact of evolution. In 1855 he had ex- 

 pressed the opinion that the study of fossils was hope- 

 less if one sought in it confirmation of the doctrine of 

 evolution; but five-and-twenty years' continuous work 

 completeh' reversed his opinion, and in 1881, address- 

 ing the British Association at York he declared that 

 " if zoologists and embryologists had not put forward 

 the theory, it would have been necessary for palaeon- 

 tologists to invent it." In three special groups of 



