XX INTRODUCTION 



III 



The work that Huxley did for the cause of science was 

 very great and very important. Beginning with an exceed- 

 ingly wide first-hand study of the anatomy of invertebrates, 

 he passed on to the study of that of vertebrates. '' It was 

 he who, properly speaking, founded modern embryology," 

 but the value of his work in this field can be fully appre- 

 ciated only by experts. He made important contributions 

 to ethnology, biology, botany, animal physiology, phys- 

 iography, and zoology, both vertebrate and invertebrate; 

 contributions in nearly every one of these fields important 

 enough to have given him a reputation as a scientist of the 

 first rank. Of his scientific research, "a great deal was 

 not only valuable, but epoch-making. He left his mark 

 on almost every important group of the animal kingdom, 

 and specialist workers with the most diverse interests have 

 built and will continue to build on the foundation he laid." 

 Indeed, so many have already done so that his original 

 work has been almost buried under that of those who have 

 followed him. But how broad that foundation was and 

 what an immense amount of original work Huxley actually 

 did, anyone can see who will take the trouble to glance 

 over the list of his scientific memoirs in his biography, 

 a list of titles which covers ten pages. And here it seems 

 well to quote from Sir Michael Poster: "Whatever bit 

 of life he [Huxley] touched in his search, protozoan, polyp, 

 mollusc, crustacean, fish, reptile,, beast, and man — and 

 there are few living things that he did not touch — he shed 

 light on it, and left his mark. There is not one, or hardly 

 one, of the many things he has written which may not be 

 read again to-day with pleasure and with profit, and not 

 once or twice only in such a reading, it will be felt that the 



