l62 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xi 



came in at the head of the poll; no other having, i.e. Cobden, 

 more than eleven. — Yours well satisfied, 



Rod. I. MuRCHisoN. 



From this time forth he corresponded with many foreign 

 men of science ; in these years particularly with Victor 

 Carus, Lacaze Duthiers, Kolliker, and de Quatrefages, in 

 reference to their common interest in the study of the in- 

 vertebrates. 



At home, the year 1857 opened very brightly for Hux- 

 ley with the birth of his first child, a son, on the eve of 

 the New Year. A Christmas child, the boy was named 

 Noel, and lived four happy years to be the very sunshinfe 

 of home, the object of passionate devotion, whose sudden 

 loss struck deeper and more inefifaceably than any other 

 blow that befell Huxley during all his life. 



As he sat alone that December night, in the little room 

 that was his study in the house in Waverley Place, waiting 

 for the event that was to bring him so much happiness and 

 so much sorrow, he made a last entry in his journal, full of 

 hope and resolution. In the blank space below follows a 

 note of four years later, when " the ground seemed cut from 

 under his feet," yet written with restraint and without bit- 

 terness. 



December 31, 1856. . . . 1856-7-8 must still be "Lehrjahre" 

 to complete training in principles of Histology, Morphology, 

 Physiology, Zoology, and Geology by Monographic Work in 

 each Department, i860 will then see me well grounded and 

 ready for any special pursuits in either of these branches. 



It is impossible to map out beforehand how this must be 

 done. I must seize opportunities as they come, at the risk of 

 the reputation of desultoriness. 



In i860 I may fairly look forward to fifteen or twenty years 

 " Meisterjahre," and with the comprehensive views my training 

 will have given me, I think it will be possible in that time to 

 give a new and healthier direction to all Biological Science. 



To smite all humbugs, however big ; to give a nobler tone to 

 science; to set an example of abstinence from petty personal 

 controversies, and of toleration for everything but lying; to be 

 indifferent as to whether the work is recognised as mine or not, 

 so long as it is done : — are these my aims ? i860 will show. 



