u6 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY 



ments of various examiners, has been to make the subject 

 a weary grind of disconnected facts, many of them of ex- 

 ceedingly trivial kind. For some years the extraction of 

 the minute ovaries of the earthworm was the goal of the 

 student of elementary Biology. Although the "pious 

 founder " must not be blamed for the way in which his 

 method has been perverted, yet he was accustomed to 

 enter into somewhat full detail regarding the anatomy 

 and physiology of the rabbit, thus limiting the time avail- 

 able for the other types, and creating a wrong impression 

 among the unintelligent. 



Huxley's classes at South Kensington were made up 

 of two varieties of student, those who paid, and those 

 who were paid for by the Government, i.e., science 

 teachers in training. The latter were by many regarded 

 as of an inferior order, and had to attend every Saturday 

 to receive their weekly allowance of twenty-five shillings 

 (since reduced in amount) from the hands of a petty official, 

 factory fashion. Some of the professors even put up 

 two examination lists, thus emphasizing the gulf dividing 

 the two castes. Opposed as he always was to snobbery 

 in every form, Huxley made no such invidious distinc- 

 tion, and the names of sheep and goats alike were 

 associated in the same list. 



It has elsewhere been mentioned (cf. pp. 56, 77), that 

 Huxley sympathized with the movement for the higher 

 education of women, and anticipated no ill effects from 

 placing every facility in their way, but an incident of this 

 year (1872) shows that he was opposed to "mixed" 

 classes in certain subjects. Miss Jex Blake, who was 

 furthering the cause of women medical students at Edin- 

 burgh, had asked him to examine their male demonstrator 

 in anatomy, with a view to his recognition by the Uni- 

 versity Court. 



