i859 HUXLEY AT OXFORD 165 



continuation of the " chorda," which gives rise to the spine, 

 being at the top of the upper fin, and both fins being devel- 

 oped on the same side of it. Lopsidedness as such, there- 

 fore, was not to be regarded as an embryological character 

 in ancient fishes; what might be regarded as such was tlie 

 absence of a bony sheath to the end of the " chorda " found 

 in the more developed fishes. Further traces of this bony 

 structure were shown to exist, among other piscine resem- 

 blances, in the Amphibia. Finally the embryological facts 

 now observed in the development of the bones of the skull 

 were of great importance, " as they enable us to understand, 

 on the one hand, the different modifications of the palato- 

 suspensorial apparatus in fishes, and on the other hand the 

 relations of the components of this apparatus to the corre- 

 sponding parts in other Vcrtcbrata," fishes, reptiles, and 

 mammals presenting a well-marked series of gradations in 

 respect to this point. 



This part of the paper had grown out of the investiga- 

 tions begun for the essay on the Vertebrate Skull,* just as 

 that on Jacare and Caiman from inquiry into the scales of 

 Stagonolepis. 



Thus he was still able to devote most of his time to 

 original research. But though in his letter of March 27, 

 1855, below, he says, " I never write for the Reviews now, 

 as original work is much more to my taste," it appears from 

 jottings in his 1859 notebook, such as " Whewell's History 

 of Scientific Ideas, as a Peg on which to hang Cuvier arti- 

 cle," that he again found it necessary to supplement his 

 income by writing. He was still examiner at London Uni- 

 versity, and delivered six lectures on Animal Motion at the 

 London Institution and another at Warwick. This lecture 

 he had offered to give at the Warwick Museum as some 

 recognition of the willing help he had received from the 

 assistants when he came down to examine certain fossils 

 there. On the way he visited RoUeston at Oxford. The 

 knowledge of Oxford life gained from this and a later visit 

 led him to write : — 



* See p. 152. 



