45 



*HUXLEY AND NATURAL SELECTION 

 By Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S. 



On March 23, Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., 

 delivered the Huxley Lecture at Birmingham. 

 He said the attitude of Huxley toward natural 

 selection was remarkable and unusual. Although 

 no one fought so nobly, and against such odds in 

 its favour, although no one had ever fought the 

 battle of science with such success, [Huxley was 

 never a convinced believer in the theory he de- 

 fended from unfair attack.^ At least one cause of 

 that want of confidence he (the lecturer) believed 

 to be due to the fact that his researches, deter- 

 mined by the bent of nature, were anatomical and 

 palseontological rather than the study of the 

 living organism in relation to its environment, 

 and especially its living environment. The 

 origin and growth of the theory and the circum- 

 stances under which it was made public had often 

 been told. Darwin, convinced of evolution by 

 reflection upon his observations in South America 

 during the voyage of the "Beagle" (1831-36), 

 began in July, 1837, systematically to collect 

 facts bearing upon the modification of species and 

 its causes. In October of the following year he 

 read Malthus " On Population," and the idea of 

 natural selection at once dawned on his mind. 



* 'Revised from the ^Scientific American" Supplement, Vol. 59, 



p. 24515-16, April IQOS. 

 In full in " Essays on Evolution," Oxford, 1858, pp. 193-219. 



