THE MAN 7 



discreditable insinuation in Punchy a commercial one 

 — which Huxley coveted. 



Owen Stanley, son of the Bishop of Norwich and 

 brother of Dean Stanley, was in command of the 

 Rattlesnake, a 28-gun frigate commissioned to survey 

 the intricate passages within the barrier-reef skirting 

 the eastern shores of Australia, between which colony 

 and the mother country a shorter sea-passage was de- 

 manded by the growing trade. Captain Stanley 

 wanted an assistant-surgeon, and on the recommenda- 

 tion of Sir John Richardson, the famous Arctic ex- 

 plorer, Huxley was given the post. It was the best 

 possible apprenticeship for the work which lay, un- 

 suspected, before him — the solution of the problems 

 of organology, and the indicating of their far-reach- 

 ing significance. Life had its origin in water, and 

 therein the biologist finds his most suggestive material. 

 Darwin and Joseph Hooker had passed through a like 

 curriculum — the one in 183 1, and the other in 1839. 



The Rattlesnake left Plymouth on the 12th De- 

 cember, 1846, two years before Bates and Wallace 

 sailed for exploration of the Amazons. It was a time 

 of preparation, each only vaguely knowing to what 

 ends he worked, but in his measure contributing an- 

 swer to the question whether species were mutable or 

 permanent. 



1 II. 26. 



