198 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY C HAP. X 



work over and above what was required of him by 

 his appointment as Professor. He found his students 

 to a great extent lacking in the knowledge of general 

 principles necessary to the comprehension of the 

 special work before them. To enable them to make 

 the best use of his regular lectures, he offered them 

 in addition a preliminary evening course of nine 

 lectures each January, which he entitled " An Intro- 

 duction to the Study of the Collection of Fossils in 

 the Museum of Practical Geology." These lectures 

 summed up what he afterwards named Physiography, 

 together with a general sketch of fossils and their 

 nature, the classification of animals and plants, their 

 distribution at various epochs, and the principles on 

 which they are constructed, illustrated by the ex- 

 amination of some animal, such as a lobster. 



The regular lectures, fifty -seven in number, ran 

 from February to April and from April to June, with 

 fortnightly examinations during the latter period, six 

 in number. I take the scheme from his notebook : 

 " After prolegomena, the physiology and morphology 

 of lobster and dove; then through Invertebrates, 

 Anodon, Actinia, and Vorticella Protozoa, to Mollus- 

 can types. Insects, then Vertebrates. Supplemented 

 Paleontologically by the demonstrations of the selected 

 types in the cases ; twelve Paleozoic, twelve Mesozoic 

 and Cainozoic," by his assistants. "To make the 

 course complete there should be added (1) A series 

 of lectures on Species, practical discrimination and 

 description, modification by conditions and distribu- 



