LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



"JXLEY'S duties on the "Rattlesnake" 

 were not in the line of science. His rank 

 was assistant surgeon, but as sure-enough 

 surgeons were only sent out on bigger 

 craft he was this ship's doctor. "With the 

 captain's help the men were kept busy, 

 but not too busy, and the food and regulations were 

 such that about all Huxley had to do was to look upon 

 his work and pronounce it good. 



As a physician, Huxley practiced throughout his life 

 the science of prevention. 



" With a fine prophetic vision, quite unconscious, my 

 parents named me after that particular apostle I was 

 to admire most," once said Huxley. He was a doubter 

 by instinct, and approached the world of nature as if 

 nothing were known about it. 



His work on the Medusa won him the recognition of 

 the British Society, and this secured him the coveted 

 surgeon's commission. Two tragedies confront man on 

 his journey through life one when he wants a thing 

 and cannot get it ; the other when he gets the thing 

 and finds he does not want it. 



Having secured his surgeon's commission, Huxley felt 

 a strong repulsion toward devoting his life to the ab- 

 normal. " I am a scientist by nature, and my business 

 is to teach," he wrote to his affianced wife. These were 

 'wise words which he had learned from her, but which 

 he repeated, seemingly quite innocent of their source. 

 We take our own wherever we find it. 

 Miss Heathorn admired a surgeon, but loved a scientist, 

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