October 29, 



NA TURE 



627 



THE HUXLEY LABORATORY FOR 



BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH, 



AND THE MARSHALL SCHOLARSHIP. 



OCIENTIFIC friends and former pupils of Prof. 

 •-^ Huxley will alike be gratified to learn that an 

 appropriate method has been devised for establishing 

 a permanent memorial of his great services to the insti- 

 tution with which his name has been so long identified. 

 The late Sir Warington Smyth, whose loss we had to de- 

 plore rather more than a year ago, was the last surviving 

 member of the original staff of the School of Mines, as 

 founded by Sir Henry de la Beche in 1851. Prof. Huxley, 

 who, as long ago as 1854, succeeded Edward Forbes in 

 the Chair of Natural History, continues to hold the post 

 of Honorary Dean of the Royal College of Science, with 

 which the School of Mines is now incorporated ; and 

 although, since 1885, compelled by ill-health to discon- 

 tinue the work of lecturing, he is still, we are happy to 

 say, able to take a kindly interest in, and to exercise a 

 general supervision over, the biological studies carried 

 on in the school 



How much the Central Institution for training teachers 

 in science, which is now located at South Kensington, 

 owes to the organizing faculty and unremitting labours of 

 Prof. Huxley, only those who have been associated with 

 him in the work can form any just estimate. During the 

 first twenty years of its existence all attempts at practical 

 teaching in the School of Mines were restricted to the 

 subjects of chemistry and metallurgy, the space available 

 in the Jermyn Street buildings only permitting of the 

 existence of very small and inconvenient laboratories in 

 connection with those two branches of science. 



Soon after the first establishment of the school, larger 

 and more convenient premises for carrying on the chemi- 

 cal instruction had to be obtained in Oxford Street ; and 

 in 1 8/2, on the unanimous recommendation of the 

 Council, the teaching of chemistry, physics, and biology, 

 was transferred to the building at South Kensington, 

 which had been originally designed as a School of Naval 

 Architecture. At subsequent dates, as the inadequacy 

 of the Jermyn Street buildings to accommodate both the 

 school and the Geological Survey made itself more 

 strongly felt, the divisions of geology, mineralogy, metal- 

 lurgy, applied mechanics, and mining, were successively 

 removed to the same place. 



No sooner did Prof. Huxley find an opportunity 

 afforded to him, than he energetically devoted himself 

 to the realization of a long-cherished scheme for establish- 

 ing a system of practical laboratory-instruction in biology, 

 including both its zoological and its botanical aspects. 

 The ground was broken by a short vacation course, in 

 which an attempt was made to supply such practical in- 

 struction to persons engaged in teaching ; this course 

 was given in the summer of 1871, and in the following 

 year the same system of laboratory-instruction in 

 biology was introduced into the ordinary School of 

 Mines curriculum. In establishing at South Kensington 

 the biological laboratory which has become the model 

 of so many similar institutions at home and abroad, 

 Prof. Huxley sought and obtained the advice and co- 

 operation of many of his fellow-workers in science, 

 among whom may be specially mentioned Profs. Michael 

 Foster, Thiselton Dyer, Ray Lankester, and Rutherford, 

 with Dr. Martin and Dr. Vines. In carrying on and 

 further developing the work, he has had the assistance of 

 Profs. Jeffrey Parker and F. O. Bower, in the zoological 

 and botanical departments respectively, and, in succession 

 to them, of Mr. G. B. Howes and Dr. D. H. Scott. 



From the period of the first foundation of the School 

 of Mines, the importance had been kept in mind of com- 

 bining original research with the work of teaching. No 

 one at the present day needs to be reminded of the 

 numerous important investigations which have been 



NO. I 148, VOL. 44] 



prosecuted by Prof. Huxley, both at Jermyn Street an* 

 South Kensington. Memoirs of the highest value on 

 various branches of comparative anatomy and palaeonto- 

 logy have been interspersed with notable contributions to- 

 geology, to anthropology, and to botany ; and from time 

 to time excursions have been made still farther afield 

 (predatory excursions they were regarded by some), into- 

 realms of thought more remote from the ordinary domain 

 of the zoologist. But in all these varied avocations the 

 interests of the teaching work were never forgotten ; and 

 it was made evident that the teacher, while carrying on 

 investigations himself, was ever ready to suggest, stimu- 

 late, and supervise the investigations of others. 



When, in 1885, ill-health compelled Prof. Huxley to 

 relinquish his daily occupations in the school, it was 

 found that, during the more than thirty years' occupancy 

 of his post, he had accumulated a most valuable library 

 of research, composed of treatises and journals dealing 

 with every branch of biological science. This library he 

 generously determined to present to the institution, the 

 interests of which he had so long and earnestly laboured 

 to promote. The Council of the School, in accepting 

 this valuable gift, recommended that the room where these 

 books were kept, and in which Prof. Huxley had so long^ 

 carried on his work, should be entirely set apart for bio- 

 logical research ; and the proposal at once met with the 

 sanction of the Lords of the Committee of Council oi> 

 Education. 



The Huxley Laboratory for Biological Research is now 

 arranged to accommodate twostudents, whowill undertake 

 investigations in connection with some branch of zoology^ 

 botany, or palaeontology, the work being carried on under 

 the supervision of the professors and assistant professors 

 of the school. With a valuable library and all necessary 

 appliances for work supplied to them, it may be hoped 

 that the genius loci will not be without its influence upon 

 these research students, and that a long series of import- 

 ant observations may be made, which will constitute an 

 enduring and a worthy memorial of Prof. Huxley's con- 

 nexion with the school. 



It happens, very opportunely, that something in the 

 way of a small endowment has already been provided to 

 aid this scheme of biological research. As long ago as 

 1882, Miss Sarah Marshall, of Warwick Gardens, Ken- 

 sington, wrote to Prof. Huxley, informing him of her 

 intention to bequeath the sum of ^1000, and her scientific 

 books and instruments, to the Department of Science 

 and Art, with a view to the establishment of a prize or 

 scholarship in biology, in memory of her father, the late 

 Mr. Marshall of the Bank of England. By the recent 

 death of Miss Marshall, this bequest has now passed into- 

 the hands of the Lords of the Committee of Council on 

 Education, and, by the advice of the Council of the Royal 

 College of Science, it has been decided that the interest 

 of the legacy shall be annually paid as a scholarship to a 

 meritorious student, to aid him in carrying on some bio- 

 logical investigation in the Huxley Laboratory. We car* 

 only hope that this modest attempt at the endowment 

 of research may be attended with success ; and that this 

 success may be so conspicuous as to encourage others to 

 imitate the example of Miss Marshall, so that bequests of 

 a similar character may be made in connexion with this 

 and other institutions where scientific researches can be 

 carried on. 



ON VAN DER WAALS'S TREATMENT Or 

 LA PLACES PRESSURE IN THE VI RIAL 

 EQUATION: IN ANSWER TO LORD RAY- 

 LEIGH. 



IVj Y DEAR LORD RAYLEIGH,-From the heading. 

 -'■'-*■ of your first letter, and from the wide scope of the 

 passage you quoted from my paper, I imagined that you 

 mtended to raise the whole question of Van der Waals's 



