84 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. Ill 



Later, in 1872, when the biological department of 

 the Royal School of Mines was transferred to South 

 Kensington, this method was adopted as part of the 

 regular curriculum of the school, and from that time 

 the teaching " of zoology by lectures alone became an 

 anachronism." 



The first of these courses to schoolmasters took 

 place, as has been said, in 1871. Some large rooms 

 on the ground floor of the South Kensington Museum 

 were used for the purpose. There was no proper 

 laboratory, but professor and demonstrators rigged 

 up everything as wanted. Huxley was in the full 

 tide of that more than natural energy which preceded 

 his breakdown in health, and gave what Professor 

 Ray Lankester describes as " a wonderful course of 

 lectures," one every day from ten to eleven for six 

 weeks, in June and half July. The three demonstra- 

 tors (those named first on the list above) each took 

 a third of the class, about thirty-five apiece. " Great 

 enthusiasm prevailed. We went over a number of 

 plants and of animals including microscopic work 

 and some physiological experiment. The ' tj-pes ' 

 were more numerous than in later courses." 



In 1872 the new laboratory the present one 

 was ready. " I have a laboratory," writes Huxley to 

 Dohrn, " which it shall do your eyes good to behold 

 when you come back from Ceylon, the. short way " (i.e. 

 vid England). Here a similar course, under the same 

 demonstrators, assisted by H. N. Martin, was given 

 in the summer, Huxley, though very shaky in 



