4 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. I 



nature and education and the progress of thought, 

 he was still constantly at work on biological researches 

 of his own, many of which took shape in the Hunterian 

 lectures at the College of Surgeons from 1863-1870. 

 But from 1870 onward, the time he could spare to 

 such research grew less and less. For eight years 

 he was continuously on one Royal Commission after 

 another. His administrative work on learned societies 

 continued to increase; in 1869-70 he held the presi- 

 dency of the Ethnological Society, with a view to 

 effecting the amalgamation with the Anthropological, 

 "the plan," as he calls it, "for uniting the Societies 

 which occupy themselves with man (that excludes 

 'Society' which occupies itself chiefly with woman)." 

 He became President of the Geological Society in 

 1872, and for nearly ten years, from 1871 to 1880, 

 he was secretary of the Royal Society, an office 

 which occupied no small portion of his time and 

 thought, " for he had formed a very high ideal of the 

 duties of the Society as the head of science in this 

 country, and was determined that it should not at 

 least fall short through any lack of exertion on his 

 part" (Sir M. Foster, R. S. Obit. Not.). 1 



The year 1870 itself was one of the busiest he had 

 ever known. He published one biological and four 

 paleontological memoirs, and sat on two Royal Com- 

 missions, one on the Contagious Diseases Acts, the 

 other on Scientific Instruction, which continued until 

 1875. 



1 See Appendix II. 



