BIOGRAPHICAL (1825-1854) 13 



tendance at a 'post-Tnortein examination at the early- 

 age of about fourteen. In some way or other he 

 absorbed some poison, or toxic agent, on this occasion, 

 and was very ill after it, and, although he recovered 

 quickly, he himself attributes his subsequent fifty 

 years of dyspepsia to this event. 



When quite a boy, too, he began the study of 

 German, teaching himself, and this very soon led 

 to his acquaintance with continental science. He 

 was impelled to this study from his reading of Carlyle, 

 the constant references to German hterature stimu- 

 lating him to acquire the language so that he could 

 read the originals. 



In 1841 he went as an assistant to Mr. Chandler, 

 at Rotherhithe, where he had considerable experi- 

 ence among the poor population in the east of Lon- 

 don. The poverty and struggle for existence wliich 

 he found there made a great impression upon liis 

 mind. A httle later he went to the north of London, 

 being apprenticed to his brother-in-law, and here 

 he began to study for his matriculation examina- 

 tion, gaining the first prize of his career, at Sydenham 

 College, in the subject of botany. 



He began his hospital course at Charing Cross 

 Hospital on October 1, 1842, where, he says himself, 

 he worked hard when it pleased him, and when it 

 did not — which was very frequently — ^was extremely 

 idle. The only instruction which he received wliich 

 seemed of much real value was that from the 

 lecturer of physiology, Mr. Wliarton Jones, who 

 impressed Huxley greatly. This teacher suggested 

 to Huxley the pubUcation of his first scientific 

 paper, which appeared in the Medical Gazette of 1845. 

 By a curious turn of events, Huxley's profound 



