448 



LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xxviii 



violence." Later, " I am Jjenevolent to all the world, being 

 possessed of a dozen live axolotls and four or five big dead 

 mesobranchs. Moreover, I am going to get endless Frogs 

 and Toads by judicious exchange with Gunther. We will 

 work up the Amphibia as they have not been done since 

 they were crea — I mean evolved." * 



The question of the pedicle comes up again when he 

 simpHfies some of Parker's results as to the development 

 of the Columella auris in the Frog. " Your suprahyoman- 

 dibular is nothing but the pedicle of the suspensorium over 

 again. It has nothing whatever to do with the columella 

 auris. . . . The whole thing will come out as simply as 

 possible without any of your coalescences and combothera- 

 tions. How you will hate me and the pedicle." 



Tracing the development of the columella was a long 

 business, but it grew clearer as young frogs of various ages 

 were examined. " Don't be aggravated with yourself," he 

 writes to Parker in July, " it's tough work, this here Frog." 

 And on August 5 : " I have worked over Toad and I have 

 worked over Frog, and I tell an obstinate man that s.h.m. 

 (suprahyomandibular) is a figment — or a vessel, whichever 

 said obstinate man pleases." The same letter contains what 

 he calls his final views on the columella, but by the end of 

 the year he has gone further, and writes : — 



Be prepared to bust-up with all the envy of which your 

 malignant nature is capable. The problem of the vertebrate 

 skull is solved. Fourteen segments or thereabouts in Am- 

 phioxus; all but one (barring possibilities about the ear capsule) 

 aborted in higher vertebrata. Skull and brain of Amphioxus 

 shut up like an opera-hat in higher vertebrata. So ! ( Sketch 

 in illustration). 



PS. — I am sure you will understand the whole affair from 

 this. Probably published it already in Nature ! 



A letter to the Times of July 8, 1874, on women's edu- 

 cation, was evoked by the following circumstances. Miss 

 Jex Blake's difficulties in obtaining a medical education 



* Dr. A. C. L. G. Gunther, of the British Museum, where he was 

 appointed Keeper of the Department of Zoology in 1875. 



