PROSPECT OF MARRIAGE 27 



although very annoying at the time, has been of the utmost 

 service to me; for when, in 1854, their Lordships, as I 

 suppose, weary of our pertinacity, cut the knot by calling upon 

 me to serve afloat, new prospects had presented themselves, and, 

 in giving up my commission, I obtained the long-sought funds 

 for publication — the administrators of the Government Grant no 

 longer objecting, that the Admiralty was pledged to supply its 

 officers with funds for the publication of work, done in its 

 service." 



The year 1 854 not only brought Huxley some of the 

 more solid rewards of success, but was satisfactory in 

 another way, for, before his appointments fell to him, Mr. 

 Heathorn had decided to come with his wife and dauf^hter 

 to England, there to reside permanently. And there was 

 therefore an immediate prospect of marriage, after a long 

 engagement, extending over a period of much anxiety 

 and adversity. 



The scientific work published during this year includes 

 the following : — 



I. " On the Vascular System of the Lower Annulosa" 

 (Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1854, p. 109. Sci. A4em., i, xxiv, 

 p. 279). — This highly speculative paper did good service 

 by throwing doubt upon the then accepted view that 

 certain sets of branching tubes in various worm-like forms 

 and Echinoderms were equivalent to the blood system 

 of higher Invertebrates. But at the same time, other 

 homologies were suggested which subsequent research has 

 shown to be untenable. To criticize the early pioneer 

 work of an eminent investigator is a particularly difficult 

 task, but here and elsewhere Huxley was rather prone 

 to jump at conclusions, an inherited character, regarding 

 which he himself says, "... it has often stood me in 

 good stead ; it has sometimes played me sad tricks, and it 

 has always been a danger" (Autobiography, Coll. Essays, 

 i, p. 4). 



