CHAPTER XI 



OFFICIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE WORK [1870-71]. 



The year 1870 may be taken as the beginning of a new 

 stage in Huxley's life, involving an increase in official and 

 administrative duties, with consequent diminution in the 

 amount of original work. The last point is sufficiently 

 illustrated by the fact that three out of the four large 

 volumes in which his Scientific Memoirs have been issued 

 in a collected form are taken up with the results of re- 

 searches carried out before 1873. 



Much time was in future to be occupied by the duties 

 involved in serving on various Commissions. Before 

 1870 he had already been a member of four of these, i.e. : 



1. Royal Commission on the Operation of Acts relating 

 to Trawling for Herrings on the Coast of Scotland ( 1 862). 



2. Royal Commission to inquire into the Sea Fisheries of 

 the United Kingdom (1864-5). 3. Commission on the 

 Royal College of Science for Ireland (1866). 4. Com- 

 mission on Science and Art Instruction in Ireland (1868). 



The Commissions with which he was concerned from 

 1870 onwards were as follows^: — 5. Royal Commission 

 upon the Administration and Operation of the Contagious 

 Diseases Acts (1870-1). 6. Royal Commission on 

 Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science 

 (1870-5). 7. Royal Commission on the Practice of sub- 

 jecting Live Animals to Experiments for Scientific Pur- 

 poses (1876). 8. Royal Commission to inquire into 

 the Universities of Scotland (1876-8). 9. Royal Com- 

 mission on the Medical Acts (188 1-2). 10. Royal 



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