128 Annual Report of the Council. 



then described for the first time, is still known as 

 "Huxley's layer." 



Having entered the naval medical service, he was 

 appointed in 1846 to the "Victory" for hospital service 

 at Haslar, but did not long remain in this position, 

 for he was shortly offered, by the influence of Sir 

 John Richardson, the Arctic explorer and naturalist, 

 the appointment of assistant surgeon on board Her 

 Majesty's ship " Rattlesnake," then being equipped 

 under Captain Owen Stanley for an exploring cruise 

 to the South Seas. This voyage afforded the young 

 naturalist unlimited opportunities of studying marine 

 life, of which he was not slow to avail himself. 

 Several memoirs of first-rate importance were the result 

 of these investigations, and on his return an effort was 

 made on the part of several scientific men to induce the 

 Admiralty to publish them in a suitable form, as a 

 recognition of their merit, and to act up to the spirit 

 of a pledge they had given to encourage officers to 

 undertake scientific work. These negotiations were not 

 completed when Huxley retired from the service, and 

 thereafter his memoir on the "Oceanic Hydrozoa" was 

 published by the Ray Society, with a characteristic 

 preface illustrating the encouragement offered by the 

 Admiralty to its officers to further the progress of natural 

 history. Other results of this voyage were papers on the 

 Medusce, on the anatomy of the Cephalous Mollusca, 

 and on the Radiolaria, which secured his election to> 

 the Royal Society at the early age of 26, and also 

 gained for him the award of a Royal medal. 



About this time he and his friend, the late Professor 

 Tyndall, were simultaneously candidates for the chairs of 

 natural history and physics in the University of Toronto ; 

 but, fortunately for English science, both "were elected to 

 remain at home," and Huxley received in 1854 the sub- 



