212 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xv 



ment of the three objects of his address, namely, to state 

 fully and fairly his conclusions, to avoid giving unnecessary 

 offence, and thirdly, " while feeling assured of the just and 

 reasonable dealing of the respectable part of the Scottish 

 press, I naturally hoped for noisy injustice and unreason 

 from the rest, seeing, as I did, the best security for the dis- 

 semination of my views through regions which they might 

 not otherwise reach, in the certainty of a violent attack by 

 (the Witness)." 



The applause of the audience, he says, afforded him 

 genuine satisfaction, " because it bids me continue in the 

 faith on which I acted, that a man who speaks out honestly 

 and fearlessly that which he knows, and that which he be- 

 lieves, will always enlist the good-will and the respect, how- 

 ever much he may fail in winning the assent, of his fel- 

 low-men." 



About this time a new field of interest was opened out 

 to him, closely connected with, indeed, and completing, the 

 ape question. Sir Charles Lyell was engaged in writing 

 his Antiquity of Man, and asked Huxley to supply him with 

 various anatomical data touching the ape question, and 

 later to draw him a diagram illustrating the peculiarities 

 of the newly discovered Neanderthal skull as compared with 

 other skulls. He points out in his letters to Lyell that the 

 range of craniar capacity between the highest and the low- 

 est German — " one of the mediatised princes, I suppose " * 

 — or the Malayan or Peruvian, is almost lOO per cent; in 

 absolute amount twice as much as the difference between 

 that of the largest simian and the smallest human capacity, 

 so that in seeking an ordinal difference between man and 

 the apes, " it would certainly be well to let go the head, 

 though I am afraid it does not mend matters much to lay 

 hold of the foot." 



And on January 25, 1862 ■.^- 



I have been skull-measuring all day at the College of Sur- 

 geons. The Neanderthal skull may be described as a slightly 



* The minor princes of Germany, whose territories were annexed 

 to larger states, and who thus exchanged a direct for a mediate share 

 in the imperial government. 



