1860 THE OXFORD MEETING OF 1860 261 



plants, with particular reference to Mr. Darwin's 

 work on the Origin of Species." l Huxley was called 

 upon to speak by the President, but tried to avoid a 

 discussion, on the ground "that a general audience, 

 in which sentiment would unduly interfere with 

 intellect, was not the public before which such a 

 discussion should be carried on." 



This consideration, however, did not stop the dis- 

 cussion; it was continued by Owen. He said he 

 " wished to approach the subject in the spirit of the 

 philosopher," and declared his " conviction that there 

 were facts by which the public could come to some 

 conclusion with regard to the probabilities of the 

 truth of Mr. Darwin's theory." As one of these 

 facts, he stated that the brain of the gorilla " pre- 

 sented more differences, as compared with the brain 

 of man, than it did when compared with the brains 

 of the very lowest and most problematical of the 

 Quadrumana." 



Now this was the very point, as said above, upon 

 which Huxley had made special investigations during 

 the last two years, with precisely opposite results, 

 such as, indeed, had been arrived at by previous 

 investigators. Hereupon he replied, giving these 

 assertions a "direct and unqualified contradiction," 

 and pledging himself to "justify that unusual pro- 

 cedure elsewhere," a pledge which was amply 



1 My best thanks are due to Mr. F. Darwin for permission to 

 quote his accounts of the meeting ; other citations are from the 

 Athenaeum reports of July 14, 1860. 



