124 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



of some geological strata by comparing them with the 

 red clays characteristic of the deepest parts of the oceans. 

 The absence of Prof. Wyville Thomson as chief 

 naturalist to the Challenger expedition necessitated the 

 appointment of deputies to carry on the work of his 

 Edinburgh classes. For the summer session of 1875 

 Huxley's services were secured, and he managed to 

 review the entire animal kingdom in fifty-four lectures 

 (May 3 to July 23), given to a record class of 353 

 students. In a letter to Tyndall (dated August 13, 

 1875) ^^ says : — 



" My work at Edinburgh got itself done very satisfactorily, 

 and I cleared about £1000 by the transaction, being one of the 

 few examples known of a Southern coming north and pillaging 

 the Scots " (Life, i, p. 447). 



In the Life (pp. 36-7) of one of the pupils attending 

 this particular class, the late Joseph Thomson, the follow- 

 ing interesting impressions of Huxley as a teacher are 

 given : — 



" The experience of studying personally under Huxley was 

 a privilege to which he had been looking forward with eager 

 anticipation ; for he had already been fascinated with the charm 

 of Huxley's writings, and had received from them no small 

 amount of mental stimulus. Nor were his expectations disap- 

 pointed. But he found the work to be unexpectedly hard, and 

 very soon he had the sense of panting to keep pace with the 

 demands of the lecturer. It was not merely that the texture 

 of scientific reasoning in the lectures was so closely knit, — 

 although that was a very palpable fact — but the character of 

 Huxley's terminology was entirely strange to him. It met him 

 on his weakest side, for it presupposed a knowledge of Greek 

 (being little else than Greek compounds with English termina- 

 tions), and of Greek he had none. 



" « Huxley's usual lectures,' he writes, ' are something awful 

 to listen to. One half of the class, which numbers about four 

 hundred, have given up in despair from sheer inability to follow 



