CHAPTER V 



1850-1851 



In the Huxley Lecture for 1898 (Times, October 4) Pro- 

 fessor Virchow takes occasion to speak of the effect of 

 Huxley's service in the Rattlesnake upon his intellectual de- 

 velopment : — 



When Huxley himself left Charing Cross Hospital in 1846, 

 he had enjoyed a rich measure of instruction in anatomy and 

 physiology. Thus trained, he took the post of naval surgeon, 

 and by the time that he returned, four years later, he had 

 become a perfect zoologist and a keen-sighted ethnologist. How 

 this was possible any one will readily understand who knows 

 from his own experience how great the value of personal ob- 

 servation is for the development of independent and unpreju- 

 diced thought. For a young man who, besides collecting a rich 

 treasure of positive knowledge, has practised dissection and 

 the exercise of a critical judgment, a long sea-voyage and a 

 peaceful sojourn among entirely new surroundings afford an in- 

 valuable opportunity for original work and deep reflection. 

 Freed from the formalism of the schools, thrown upon the use 

 of his own intellect, compelled to test each single object as 

 regards properties and history, he soon forgets the dogmas of 

 the prevailing system and becomes, first a sceptic, and then an 

 investigator. This change, which did not fail to affect Huxley, 

 and through which arose that Huxley whom we commemorate 

 to-day, is no unknown occurrence to one who is acquainted with 

 the history, not only of knowledge, but also of scholars. 



But he was not destined to find his subsequent path' 

 easy. Once in England, indeed, he did not lose any time. 

 No sooner had the Rattlesnake touched at Plymouth than 

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