FIRST RESEARCH PAPER 5 



man, he read the Piysio/ogy of the eminent Berlin professor, 

 Johannes Miiller, whose epoch-making comparative work 

 in natural history he afterwards continued and extended 

 with such brilliant success. 



October i, 1842, was an important date in the life 

 of young Huxley, for, together with his brother James, 

 he began his medical course at Charing Cross Hospital as 

 a Free Scholar. Wharton Jones, the lecturer on physio- 

 logy, undoubtedly made the most marked impression 

 upon him, partly in virtue of his subject, but still more 

 on account of his personality. Huxley's own opinion of 

 himself as a man and as a student, at this epoch, was 

 sufficiently pessimistic, and we may well allow our- 

 selves to discount it altogether. The feature that 

 most impressed his fellow-students was his extraordinary 

 energy, one result of which was his first contribution to 

 science, in the form of a paper entitled, " On a Hitherto 

 Undescribed Structure in the Human Hair-sheath," 

 published in the London Medical Gazette for July 1 845 

 (Sci. Mem., i, i, p. i). The structure in question is 

 still known as "Huxley's layer," and in the paper we 

 find that the German literature is dealt with in character- 

 istic fashion. It is given to but few medical students 

 to make even small additions to the sum of scientific 

 knowledge. 



He passed through his student's course with marked 

 distinction, taking a first prize in chemistry, as well as 

 one in anatomy and physiology. For the two latter 

 subjects he was awarded a gold medal, his place being 

 second in honours in the M.B. examination of the 

 University of London, 1 845. 



