2o8 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



But this was a rare interlude. What time could be 

 wrested from daily routine was given to the study of 

 invertebrate and vertebrate morphology, palaeon- 

 tology, and ethnology, familiarity with which was no 

 mean equipment for the conflict soon to rage round 

 these seemingly pacific materials when their deep 

 import was declared. The outcome of such varied 

 industry is apparent to the student of scientific me- 

 moirs. But a recital of the titles of papers con- 

 tributed to these, as e. g.. On Ceratodus, Hypero- 

 dapedon Gordoni, Hypsilophodon, Telerpeton, and 

 so forth, will not here tend to edification. The 

 original and elaborate investigations which they em- 

 body have had recognition in the degrees and medals 

 which decorated the illustrious author. But it is not 

 by these that Huxley's renown as one of the most 

 richly-endowed and widely-cultured personalities of 

 the Victorian era will endure. They might sink into 

 the oblivion which buries most purely technical work 

 without in any way affecting that foremost place 

 which he fills in the ranks of philosophical biolo- 

 gists both as clear-headed thinker and luminous in- 

 terpreter. 



In this high function the publication of the Ori- 

 gin of Species gave him his opportunity. That was 

 in 1859. As with Hooker and Bates, his experiences 

 as a traveller, and, more than this, his penetrating 

 inquiry into significances and relations, prepared his 

 mind for acceptance of the theory of descent with 

 modification of Hving forms from one stock. Hence 



