CHAPTER III 



1846-1849 



It is a curious coincidence that, like two other leaders of 

 science, Charles Darwin and Joseph Dalton Hooker, their 

 close friend Huxley began his scientific career on board one 

 of Her Majesty's ships. He was, however, to learn how 

 little the British Government of that day, for all its pro- 

 fessions, really cared for the advancement of knowledge.* 

 But of the immense value to himself of these years of hard 

 training, the discipline, the knowledge of men and of the 

 capabilities of life, even without more than the barest ne- 

 cessities of existence — of this he often spoke. As he puts 

 it in his Autobiography : — 



Life on board Her Majesty's ships in those days was a very 

 different affair from what it is now, and ours was exceptionally 

 rough, as we were often many months without receiving letters 

 or seeing any civilised people but ourselves. In exchange, we 

 had the interest of being about the last voyagers, I suppose, to 

 whom it could be possible to meet with people who knew noth- 



* The key to this attitude on the part of the Admiralty is to be 

 found in the scathing description in Briggs' Naval Adminislration from 

 jSzj to iSg2, p. 92, of the ruinous parsimony of either political party at 

 this time with regard to the navy — a policy the results of which were 

 only too apparent at the outbreak of the Crimean War. I quote a 

 couple of sentences, " The navy estimates were framed upon the lowest 

 scale, and reduction pushed to the very verge of danger." "Even 

 from a financial point of view the course pursued was the reverse of 

 economical, and ultimately led to wasteful and increased expenditure." 

 Thus the liberal professions of the Admiralty were not fulfilled ; its 

 goodwill gave the young surgeon three and a half years of leave from 

 active service; with an obdurate treasury, it could do no more. 



31 



