Annual Report of the Council. 131 



learned in either biology or microscopy ; by clergymen of 

 several denominations ; and by some few writers who have 

 taken the trouble to understand the subject." During the 

 three decades beginning with his return from the "Rattle- 

 snake" expedition, a constant series of able memoirs 

 flowed from Huxley's pen, and were published in the 

 Transactions, of various learned bodies. These contain 

 his contributions to zoological science, and are marked 

 equally by skilful elucidation of detailed structure and 

 originality in synthetic comparison with other types. 

 In particular his Croonian lecture to the Royal Society 

 on the " Development of the Skull " may be cited 

 as having laid the foundation of the modern treatment 

 of the subject, whilst his close association of the 

 birds and reptiles as a single class of vertebrates 

 (Sauropsida) must be recognised as a stroke of morpho- 

 logical genius. Mention must not be omitted in this 

 connection of his remarkable series of papers on fossil 

 animals. These he studied with the greatest zest, for, as 

 he has himself put it, " primary and direct evidence in 

 favour of evolution can be furnished only by palaeontology. 

 The geological record, so soon as it approaches complete- 

 ness, must, when properly questioned, yield either an 

 affirmative or a negative answer. If evolution has taken 

 place, there will its mark be left ; if it has not taken place, 

 there will lie its refutation." 



Great, however, as were Huxley's contributions to 

 the progress of science, it was not these that earned 

 for him widespread notoriety and popularity, and 

 rendered his name a household word, so much as the 

 ability and clearness with which he expounded the 

 results of science for the benefit of the untechnical 

 public. In this department it is not too much to say that 

 he has never been surpassed, and rarely equalled. His 

 spoken lectures were models of pellucid exposition; his 



