SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 30. 



tory in tlie Eoyal School of Mines, and held 

 these positions until his retirement from 

 active work in 1885. 



In the same year he was appointed Full- 

 erian professor of physiology in the Eoyal 

 Institution and examiner in physiology and 

 comparative anatomj' in the University of 

 London. In the thirty years that followed 

 he filled a large number of positions, some 

 honorary and some requiring a large expen- 

 diture of time and labor. In 1858 he was 

 Croonian lecturer to the Eoyal Society ; 

 from 1863 to 1869 he was professor of com- 

 parative anatomy to the Eoj^al College of 

 Surgeons ; in 1875-6 he acted as substitute 

 in the chair of natural history in the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh ; from 1870-2 he was 

 a member of the first London School Board ; 

 from 1881-5 he was inspector of salmom 

 fisheries. He was Lord Eector of the Uni- 

 versity of Aberdeen, president of the Geo- 

 logical and Ethnological Societies, president 

 of the British Association, and secretary 

 and president of the Eoyal Society. He 

 received degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, 

 Edinburgh, Dublin, Wiirzburg and Breslau, 

 and was a member of the leading scientific 

 societies and academies of the world. 



Owing to failing health — his heart was 

 affected — Huxley retired from active work 

 in 1885, and latterlj^ had been living by the 

 sea. He suffered from an attack of influ- 

 enza early in March, from which he did 

 not recover, and finally succumbed to cardiac 

 and pulmonary complications. He was 

 interred on July 4th, in Marylebone ceme- 

 tery, Einchley, where his eldest son lies 

 buried. His wife, three sons and four 

 daughters survive him. 



Huxley's zo51ogical writings cover the 

 whole range of the science from the pro- 

 tozoa to man, including an equal consider- 

 ation of living and extinct species. But 

 his interests and publications were by no 

 means confined to zoologj\ He wrote ex- 

 cellent introductions to physiology and phys- 



iography. He discussed manj' problems, 

 from Hume's philosophical scepticism to 

 the ' Salvation Army.' Indeed, his original 

 conti'ibutions to zoology are at present 

 overshadowed by his fame as a teacher and 

 advocate. Perhaps he would himself have 

 regretted this. He wi-ote in 1894 (refer- 

 ring doubtless to TjTidall): " At the same 

 time it must be admitted that the popular- 

 ization of science, whether by lecture or es- 

 say, has its drawbacks. Success in this 

 department has its perils for those who suc- 

 ceed. The ' people who fail ' take their re- 

 venge, as we have recently had occasion to 

 observe, by ignoring all the rest of a man's 

 work and glibly labelling him a mere pop- 

 ularizer." 



But Huxley was undoubtedly fitted for 

 the work he accomplished. His thought 

 was clear and his chai-acter forcible, and 

 these are admirably refiected in his lan- 

 guage. It may seem to us that the bat- 

 teries are needlessly heavy in view of the 

 defences, but there is truth in M'hat he said 

 with not uncharacteristic self-assertion — 

 his work has been ' inclosed among the 

 rubble of the foundations of later knowl- 

 edge. ' Huxley has described what he aimed 

 to do and what he accomplished better than 

 another can — he wrote : 



"To promote the increase o£ natural knowledge 

 and to forward the application of scientific methods 

 of investigation to all the problems of life to the best 

 of my abilitj', in the conviction which has grown 

 with my growth and streng-thened with my strength 

 that there is no alleviation for the sufferings of man- 

 kind except veracity of thought and of action, and 

 the resolute facing of the world as it is when the 

 garment of make-believe by which pious hands have 

 hidden its uglier features is stripped off. It is with 

 this intent that I have subordinated any reasonable, 

 or um'easonable, ambition for scientific fame, which 

 I may have permitted myself to entertain, to other 

 ends; to the popularization of science; to the devel- 

 opment and organization of scientific education; to 

 the endless series of battles and skirmishes over evo- 

 lution ; and to untiring opposition to that ecclesias- 

 tical spirit, that clericalism, which in England, as 

 everywhere else, and to whatever denomination it 



