760 HUXLEY AND HIS WOKK. 



paper "On a hitherto undescribed structure iu the human hair sheath." 

 Two years later he contributed to the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science the first paper generally attributed to him, 

 "Examination of the corpuscles of the blood of Aniphioxus." (Ab- 

 stracts, p. 95.) In 1845 he passed the first M. JB. examination at the 

 London University. Soon afterwards he was admitted into the med- 

 ical service of the navy and was, after some waiting, assigned to the 

 Rattlesnake, and for four years (1846-1850) served on her during her 

 exploration of the Australasian seas ; he was, he supposed, among the 

 last voyagers "to whom it could be possible to meet with people who 

 knew nothing of firearms — as [they] did on the south coast of New 

 Guinea." 



While on board Huxley zealously prosecuted zoological investiga- 

 tions, and in 1849 and 1850 sent records of various observations, in 

 papers which were published in the Philosophical Transactions and 

 Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Most important of all was 

 a monograph on the Oceanic Hydrozoa, published by the Eay Society. 

 It is amusing to find that while in Sydney he was impressed by Mac- 

 Leay and lead to believe that "there is a great law hidden in the 

 'Circular system 7 if we could but get at it, perhaps in Quinarian- 

 ism, too," l but sober sense doubtless soon came to the rescue and he 

 appears to have been never otherwise touched by the strange mono- 

 mania that had been epidemic in England during the previous quarter 

 century. In 1S51 he became a F. E. S. He continued in the navy three 

 years after his return, but in 1853 resigned when ordered to sea again. 



In 1853 Huxley and Tyndall became candidates for professorships in 

 the University of Toronto, but that university preferred others for the 

 vacant places and thus missed the opportunity of an age. In 1854 

 Huxley was appointed to the post of lecturer on natural history in the 

 School of Mines, which he held for the next thirty-one years. In the 

 same year he became Fullerian professor in the Royal Institution. 

 "The first important audience [lie] ever addressed was at the Eoyal 

 Institution." In 1862 he served as president of the biological section, 

 and in 1870 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 

 itself; in 1869 and 1870 of the Geological and Ethnological Societies, 

 and in 1883 to 1885 of the Eoyal Society. He was inspector of salmon 

 fisheries from 1881 to 1885. 



In 1876 he visited the United States and delivered an address at the 

 opening of the Johns Hopkins University. 



In 1885 failing health and desire for freedom led him to retire from 

 most of his offices, and thenceforth he devoted himself chiefly to literary 

 work rather than to scientific investigation. On the accession of Lord 

 Salisbury to the premiership in 1892, Huxley was made privy counselor, 

 and with it came the title of Eight Honorable, by which he was later 

 styled. In the last years of life he resided at Hodeslea, Eastbourne, and 



1 Arm. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2), VI, page 67. 



