i86g "GEOLOGICAL REFORM" ,.^ 



undertake to be examiner, but the schools might make some 

 arrangement on this point. 



You see my great object is to set going something which can 

 be worked in every school in the country in a thorough and 

 effectual way, and set an example of the manner in which I 

 think this sort of introduction to science ought to be managed. 



Unless this can be done I would rather not embark in a 

 project which will involve much labour, worry, and interruption 

 to my regular line of work. 



I met Mr. [illegible] last night, and discussed the subject 

 briefly with him. — Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. Huxley. 



I enclose a sort of rough programme of the kind of thing I 

 mean, cut up from a project of instruction for a school about 

 which I am now busy. The managers might like to see it. But 

 I shall be glad to have it returned. 



These lectures were repeated in November at South 

 Kensington Museum, as the first part of a threefold course 

 to women on the elements of physical science, and the 

 Times reporter naively remarks that under the rather alarm- 

 ing name of Physiography, many of the audience were no 

 doubt surprised to hear an exceedingly simple and lucid 

 description of a river-basin. Want of leisure prevented him 

 from bringing out the lectures in book form until November 

 1877. When it did appear, however, the book, like his 

 other popular works, had a wide sale, and became the fore- 

 runner of an immense number of school-books on the 

 subject. 



As President of the Geological Society, he delivered an 

 address {Coll. Ess. viii. 305), at the anniversary meeting, 

 February 19, upon the " Geological Reform " demanded by 

 the considerations advanced by the physicists, as to the age 

 of the earth and the duration of life upon it. From the point 

 of view of biology he was ready to accept the limits sug- 

 gested, provided that the premisses of Sir William Thom- 

 son's * argument were shown to be perfectly reliable; but he 

 pointed out a number of considerations which might pro- 

 foundly modify the results of the isolated causes adduced ; 



* Now Lord Kelvin. 



