6 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, i 



In supporting a vote of thanks to Dr. Allman, the Presi- 

 dent, for his address, he said (see Nature, Aug. 28, 1879) : — 



I will ask you to allow me to say one word rather upon my 

 own account, in order to prevent a misconception which, I think, 

 might arise, and which I should regret if it did arise. I daresay 

 that no one in this room, who has attained middle life, has been 

 so fortunate as to reach that age without being obliged, now 

 and then, to look back upon some acquaintance, or, it may be, 

 intimate ally of his youth, who has not quite verified the 

 promises of that youth. Nay, let us suppose he has done quite 

 the reverse, and has become a very questionable sort of char- 

 acter, and a person whose acquaintance does not seem quite so 

 desirable as it was in those young days; his way and yours have 

 separated; you have not heard much about him; but eminently 

 trustworthy persons have assured you he has done this, that, 

 or the other; and is more or less of a black sheep, in fact. The 

 President, in an early part of his address, alluded to a certain 

 thing — I hardly know whether I ought to call it a thing or not 

 — of which he gave you the name Bathybius, and he stated, with 

 perfect justice, that I had brought that thing into notice ; at any 

 rate, indeed, I christened it, and I am, in a certain sense, its 

 earliest friend. For some time after that interesting Bathybius 

 was launched into the world, a number of admirable persons 

 took the little thing by the hand, and made very much of it, 

 and as the President was good enough to tell you, I am glad 

 to be able to repeat and verify all the statements, as a matter 

 of fact, which I had ventured to make about it. And so things 

 went on, and I thought my young friend Bathybius would turn 

 out a credit to me. But I am sorry to say, as time has gone on, 

 he has not altogether verified the promise of his youth. 



In the first place, as the President told you, he could not be 

 found when he was wanted; and in the second place, when he 

 was found, all sorts of things were said about him. Indeed, 

 I regret to be obliged to tell you that some persons of severe 

 minds went so far as to say that he was nothing but simply a 

 gelatinous precipitate of slime, which had carried down organic 

 matter. If that is so, I am very sorry for it, for whoever may 

 have joined in this error, I am undoubtedly primarily responsible 

 for it. But I do not know at the present time of my own know- 

 ledge how the matter stands. Nothing would please me more 



biology. It would merely be one elementary organism the more 

 added to the thousands already known." (Coll. Ess. v. 154.) 



