lxiv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 1 896, 



filling that office till 1862. In that year, owing to the absence from 

 England of the then President, Mr. Leonard Horner, Mr. Huxley 

 drew up and delivered the customary Anniversary Address. He was 

 a Yice-President in 1866 ; filled the office of President of the Society 

 in 1868-69, and was again a Vice-President in 1871. 



His first paper was read before the Society as early as 1856, and 

 his last (on Hyperodapedon Oordoni) on May 11th, 1887, a period 

 of 31 years, during which time he communicated 25 separate papers 

 and three Presidential Addresses. 



In 1876 the Society awarded him the blue-ribbon of our science, 

 the Wollaston Medal. 



Such is the record which Huxley has left us within these walls ; 

 but the energies he possessed, and the genius which inspired him, 

 carried him into many other fields, and we cannot claim for our- 

 selves more than a share in the life-work of this gifted and brilliant 

 naturalist and scholar. 



Thomas Henry Huxley was born at Ealing on May 4th, 1825, 

 and was for some years educated at the School in his native place, 

 where his father was one of the masters. This preparatory course 

 was followed by assiduous private reading, including German scientific 

 literature, and instruction in medicine received from a brother-in- 

 law, who was a physician. He afterwards attended lectures at the 

 Medical School of the Charing Cross Hospital. In 1845 he passed 

 the first M.B. examination at the University of London, taking 

 honours in anatomy and physiology. Even before this he had 

 given evidence that his mind was occupied with something more 

 than the technical details of the medical profession, for, while yet a 

 student at Charing Cross Hospital, he had sent a brief notice to the 

 4 Medical Times and Gazette " of that layer in the root-sheath of hair 

 which has since borne the name of Huxley's Layer. After devoting 

 himself for a short time to the practice of his profession among the 

 poor of London, he, in 1846, joined the medical service of the Eoyal 

 Navy, and was sent to Haslar Hospital. Here he did not remain 

 long, but, like so many other men who have made their mark in 

 biological science, set out on a voyage round the world. 



Through the influence of the distinguished naturalist, Sir John 

 Richardson, who had accompanied Franklin in his early Arctic 

 expeditions, young Huxley obtained the post of assistant-surgeon 

 on Her Majesty's ship Rattlesnake, then about to proceed on a 

 surveying voyage to the Southern Seas. The ship sailed from 

 England in the winter of 1846, and did not return until November, 



