158 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



... Its inclusion would probably lead to the introduction of 

 the ordinary smattering of Latin and Greek.' 



It is interesting to note that Mason's College found 

 itself very much hampered by the limitations as to litera- 

 ture, etc., imposed, and it gradually found ways and means 

 to convert itself into an University College of the ordinary 

 kind. 



The impression made by Huxley on one of his literary 

 contemporaries finds expression this year in Skelton's 

 Crookit Meg, where the village sage and sutor is thus 

 described (p. 72) : — 



" For the rest it will be enough to add that this long, gaunt, 

 bony cobbler of old boats was — was (may I take the liberty, 

 Mr. Professor ?) a village Huxley of the year One. The colour- 

 less brilliancy of the great teacher's style, the easy facility with 

 which the drop of light forms itself into a perfect sphere as it 

 falls from its pen, belong indeed to a consummate master of the 

 art of expression, which Adam of course was not; but the 

 mental lucidity, justice, and balance, as well as the reserve of 

 power, and the Shakespearian gaiety of touch, which made the 

 old man one of the most delightful companions in the world, were 

 essentially Huxleian." 



The scientific interest of 1880 centres about the dog, 

 on which Huxley intended to write a companion volume 

 to his Crayfish, though the intention was never carried 

 out. Two lectures were delivered at the Royal Institu- 

 tion " On Dogs, and the Problems connected with them " 

 (April 6 and 13), and working-men, at Jermyn Street, 

 had also the opportunity of learning something on the 

 subject. Two memoirs represent the technical side of 

 the matter : — 



I. "On the Epipubis in the Dog and the Fox" (Proc. 

 Roy. Soc, XXX, 1879-80, pp. 162-3. Read February 5, 

 1880. Sci. Mem., iv, xxiii, p. 393). 



