iv MODERN EVOLUTION 193 



with Tyndall, the result appearing in their joint 

 authorship of a paper on ' Glacial Phenomena' in the 

 Philosopliical Transactions of the following year. 

 But this was a rare interlude. What time could be 

 wrested from daily routine was given to the study of 

 invertebrate and vertebrate morphology, palaeon- 

 tology, and ethnology, familiarity with which was no 

 mean equipment for the conflict soon to rage round 

 these seemingly pacific materials when their deep 

 import was declared. The outcome of such varied 

 industry is apparent to the student of scientific 

 memoirs. But a recital of the titles of papers con- 

 tributed to these, as e.g. ' On Ceratodus,' ' Hypero- 

 dapedon Gordoni,' ' Hypsilophodon/ ' Telerpeton/ 

 and so forth, will not here tend to edification. The 

 original and elaborate investigations which they 

 embody have had recognition in the degrees and 

 medals which decorated the illustrious author. But 

 it is not by these that Huxley's renown as one of the 

 most richly-endowed and widely-cultured personali- 

 ties of the Victorian era will endure. They might 

 sink into the oblivion which buries most purely 

 technical work without in any way affecting that 

 foremost place which he fills in the ranks of philo- 

 sophical biologists both as clear-headed thinker and 

 luminous interpreter. 



In this high function the publication of the 

 Origin of Species gave him his opportunity. That was 

 in 1859. As with Hooker and Bates, his experiences 

 as a traveller, and, more than this, his penetrating 

 enquiry into significances and relations, prepared his 

 mind for acceptance of the theory of descent with 

 m edification of living forms from one stock. Hence 



