20 HUXLEY 



and indorsed by Owen. At that time the influence 

 of Owen in biological science was supreme and un- 

 challenged, and it needed no small courage to tell so 

 high an authority that even he might sometimes be in 

 error. Moreover, the task was not easier when, as 

 experience showed, Owen was no fair fighter, and 

 given to sacrificing truth to expediency. 



As Huxley cared nothing for authority, and every- 

 thing for truth, it is not surprising that the result was 

 an "internecine feud" between them. The breach 

 was widened on the publication of the Origin of 

 Species; an event which, in Huxley's words, "marks 

 the Hejira of Science from the idolatries of special 

 creation to the purer faith of Evolution." l In a 

 paper on the Characters, Principles of Division, and 

 Primary Groups of the Class Mammalia, read by Owen 

 before the Linnean Society in 1859, ne referred to 

 certain cerebral structures as " peculiar to the genus 

 Homo," and added that the " peculiar mental powers 

 associated with this highest form of brain' war- 

 ranted the placing of man in a distinct sub-class of 

 the Mammalia. 



At the meeting of the British Association at Ox- 

 ford on 28th June, i860, Owen emphasised the state- 

 ment that " the brain of the gorilla presented more 



1 Review of Haeckel's Anthropogenic Academy, 2d January, 

 1875- 



