22S 



NATURE 



[July 4, 189; 



the first zoologists in Englai\d, taking zoology in its widest 

 and fullest signification. " When we consider," he re- 

 marked, "the long series of distinguished memoirs with 

 which, during the last quarter of a ccntur\-. Prof Huxley 

 has enriched zoological literature, wc find that in each of 

 the larger divisions of the animal kingdom we are 

 indebted to him for important discoveries." From the 

 lowest animals he gradually e.\tended his investigation to 

 the highest. In the Protozoa, he was the first to come 

 to satisfactor>- conclusions concerning the nature of 

 Thalassicollid;c and Spha-rozoida ; and by his work on 

 "Oceanic Hydrozoa," he greatly extended the knowledge 

 of Zoophytes. His researches upon members of the 

 important group of Tunicata are of great value, and 

 many important advances in the morphology of the 

 .MoUusca and .Arthropoda are due to him. Further, 

 Huxley especially studied and advanced the knowledge 

 of the comparative anatomy and classification of the 

 \'ertebrata. His " Lectures on the Elements of Compara- 

 tive .A.natomy," and his numerous monographs on living 

 and extinct species, afford abundant endence of what 

 biological science owes to him. ' 



Huxley's place as one who has Iffl-gely influenced 

 mo<lem thought on many questions, is acknowledged 

 by all to be a ver)- high one. The profound and truly 

 philosophical conceptions which guided him in his 

 inquiries, always enabled him to distinguish the essential 

 from the unessential. First among the subjects which 

 owe their advancement to his support is the theory of 

 biological evolution. When, in i860, it became his duty 

 as Professor at the Royal School of Mines to give a 

 course of lectures to working men in the Jcrmyn Street 

 Museum of Practical Geology, he selected for his subject 

 "The Relation of Man to the Lower .-Vnimals." The 

 questions arising out of this topic became the subject of 

 warm controversy at the meeting of the British .\ssocia- 

 tion in that and subsequent years. The lectures were 

 published in 1863, under the title " Evidence as to Man's 

 Place in Nature," and excited great interest both in this 

 countr)- and abroad. In this and in other works he 

 advanced the principles of the Darwinian theory, and 

 worked out many important developments. 



To again quote Hacckel : '" Not only has the Evolution 

 Theory received from Prof Huxley a complete demon- 

 stration of its immense importance, not only has it been 

 largely advanced by his valuable comparative researches, 

 but its spread among the general public has been largely 

 due to his well-known popular writings. In these he has 

 accomplished the difficult task of rendering more fully 

 and clearly intelligible to an educated public of very 

 various ranks, the highest problems of philosophic 

 biology. From the lowest to the highest organisms, 

 he has elucidated the connecting law of development. 

 In these several ways he has rendered science a ser\ice 

 which must ever rank as one of the highest of his many 

 and great scientific merits." 



As a writer of English, Huxley has been unsurpassed in 

 <iur time and generation. He has set a standard in scien- 

 tific literature, both in clearness of exposition and in the 

 most perfect handling of words, which it behoves his suc- 

 cessors to closely follow. He aimed at writing clearly, 

 and avoided the use of technical language whenever 

 possible. .As he remarks in the preface to the volume of 

 "'-ollected Essays "containing his biological and geological 

 addresses : " I have not been one of those fortunate pcr- 

 .sons who are able to regard a popular lecture as a mere 

 liors (fa-uiT,; unworthy of being ranked among the serious 

 efforts of a philosopher ; and who keep their fame as 

 scientific hierophants unsullied by attempts at least, of 

 the successful sort to be undcrslanded of the people. 

 On the contrary. I found that the task of putting the 

 truths learned in the held, the iaborator)' and llic museum, 

 into language which, without bating a jot of scientific 

 ;»ccuracy shall be generally intelligible, taxed such scien- 



NO. 1340, VOL. 52] 



tific and literary abilities as I possessed to the uttermost ; 

 indeed, my experience has furnished me with no better cor- 

 rective of the tendency to scholastic pedantry which besets 

 all those who are absorbed in pursuits remote from the 

 common ways of men, and become habituated to think 

 and speak in the technical dialect of their own little 

 world, as if there were no other." 



This Journal especially loses in him one of its best 

 friends. We are now in the second series of fifty volumes, 

 and his was the hand that commenced both of them. His 

 introduction to the fifty-first volume will be fresh in the 

 minds of our readers, and it justified the position 

 he had occupied since 1S59, as the devoted apostle of 

 the Darwinian tlieor)'. He was, moreover, not only a 

 most valued contributor to our columns, but his advice 

 on many points has been freely asked, given, and 

 followed, during a quarter of a century. 



Hu.xley's wonderful kindness to young men is very well 

 known. He would discuss subjects with his students, 

 and his perfect geniality put them entirely at their ease. 

 .\lways ready to extend a helping hand, he assisted many 

 to higher ranges than they could otherwise have attained, 

 and by words of encouragement induced others to con- 

 tinue their ascent. 



The objects which Huxley stated he had in mind from 

 the commencement of his scientific career are these :-- 



"To promote the increase of natural knowledge and to 

 forward the application of scientific methods of investi- 

 gation to all the problems of life to the best of my ability, 

 in the conviction which has grown with my growth and 

 strengthened with my strength that there is no alleviation 

 for the sufferings of mankind except veracity of thought 

 and of action, and the resolute facing of the world as it 

 is when the garment of make-believe by which pious 

 hands have hidden its uglier features is stripped ofl". It 

 is with this intent that I have subordinated any reason- 

 able, or unreasonable, ambition for scientific fame, which 

 1 may have permitted myself to entertain, to other ends ; 

 to the popularisation of science ; to the development and 

 organisation of scientific education ; to the endless series 

 of battles and skirmishes over evolution ; and to untiring 

 opposition to that ecclesiastical spirit, that clericalism, 

 which in England, as everywhere else, and to whatever 

 denomination it may belong, is the deadly enemy of 

 science. In striving for the attainment of these objects, 

 I have been but one among many, and 1 shall be well con- 

 tent to be remembered, or even not remembered, as such." 



How nobly he acted up to his principles we all know ; 

 how greatly the pursuit of his objects have benefited in- 

 tellectual and material progress, we can only estimate. 



In the preface of the fifth \oluine of his "Collected 

 Essays," Huxley gives a quotation from Strauss's 

 " Der alte und der neue C.laube,'' which describes so 

 exactly the guiding principles of his life, that it is difficult 

 to believe the lines were written by another hand nearly 

 a quarter of a century ago. " For close upon forty years," 

 wrote Strauss, " 1 have been writing with one purpose ; 

 from time to time I have fiiughl for that which seemed to 

 me the truth, perhaps still more, against that which I 

 have thought error : and in this way I have reached, 

 indeed overstepped, the threshold of old age. There every 

 earnest man has to listen to the voice within : ' Ciivc an 

 account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer 

 steward.' That I have been an unjust steward, my con- 

 science does not bear witness. .-Xt times ])lundering, at 

 times negligent. Heaven knows : but, on the whole, 1 

 have done that which I fi-lt al)le and called upon to do ; 

 and 1 have done it without looking to the right or to the 

 left ; .seeking no man's favour, fearing no man's disfavour." 



Huxley leaves a wife and seven children three sons 

 and four daughters. They mourn the loss of a loving 

 husband and father, and their affliction is shared by ;ill 

 who were fortunate enough to know him as a friend. Hut 

 his loss will not only be felt by these ; it affects the whole 



