276 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY CHAP. XV 



Some of these days I shall look up the ape question 

 again and go over the rest of the organisation in the same 

 way. But in order to get a thorough grip of the question 

 I must examine into a good many points for myself. The 

 results, when they do come out, will, I foresee, astonish 

 the natives. 



Full of interest in this theme, he made it the 

 subject of his popular lectures in the spring of 1861. 



Thus from February to May he lectured weekly 

 to working men on "The Eelation of Man to the 

 rest of the Animal Kingdom," and on March 22 

 writes to his wife : 



My working men stick by me wonderfully, the house 

 being fuller than ever last night By next Friday 

 evening they will all be convinced that they are 

 monkeys. . . . Said lecture, let me inform you, was 

 very good. Lyell came and was rather astonished at the 

 magnitude and attentiveness of the audience. 



These lectures to working men were published in 

 the Natural History Review, as was a Friday evening 

 discourse at the Eoyal Institution (February 8) on 

 " The Nature of the Earliest Stages of Development 

 of Animals." 



Meanwhile the publication of these researches led 

 to another pitched battle, in which public interest 

 was profoundly engaged. The controversy which 

 raged had some resemblance to a duel over a point 

 of honour and credit. Scientific technicalities became 

 the catchwords of society, and the echoes of the great 

 Hippocampus question linger in the delightful pages 



