766 HUXLEY AND HIS WORK. 



had lasted for some years Professor Owen had not qualified these asser- 

 tions, but had repeatedly reiterated them. He (Professor Huxley), on 

 the other hand, had controverted these statements; and affirmed, on 

 the contrary, that the three structures mentioned not only exist, but. 

 are often better developed than in man, in all the higher apes. He 

 (Professor Huxley) now appealed to the anatomists present in the sec- 

 tion whether the universal voice of Continental and British anatomists 

 had not entirely borne out his statements and refuted those of Pro- 

 fessor Owen. Professor Huxley discussed the relations of the foot of 

 man with those of the apes, and showed that the same argument could 

 be based upon them as on the brain; that argument being that the 

 structural differences between man and the highest ape are of the 

 same order, and only slightly different in degree from those which 

 separate the apes one from another. In conclusion, he expressed his 

 opinion of the futility of discussions like the present. In his opinion 

 the differences between man and the lower animals are not to be 

 expressed by his toes or his brain, but are moral and intellectual." 



The appeal to anatomists was answered on the spot. The foremost 

 anatomists of England there present (Eolleston and Flower) succes- 

 sively rose and indorsed the affirmations of Huxley. Not one supported 

 Owen, and, brilliant as his attainments were, his want of candor 

 entailed on him the loss of his eminent place, and Huxley took the 

 vacated throne. But the contest that resulted in Owen's overthrow 

 was of great service, for in the chief centers of civilization anatomists 

 eagerly investigated the question at issue, and the consequence was 

 that in a few years more material had been collected and studied than 

 under ordinary conditions would have been done in five times the 

 period. Unlike other battles, one in scientific warfare is almost always 

 advantageous to the general cause, whatever it may be to a party. 



IV. 



The first important memoir by Huxley was written in his twenty- 

 third year On the Anatomy and the Affinities of the Family of the 

 Medusas (Phil. Trans., 1849, pp. 413-434, pi. 37-39), and contained the 

 germ of a fundamental generalization. He therein laid "particular 

 stress upon the composition of [the stomach j and other organs of the 

 medusas out of two distinct membranes, as," he says, "I believe that 

 is one of the essential peculiarities of their structure, and that a knowl- 

 edge of the fact is of great importance in investigating their homologies. 

 I will," he continues, "call these two membranes as such, and inde- 

 pendently of any modification into particular organs, 'foundation 

 membranes'" (p. 414). In his summary (p. 425) he also formulates 

 "that a medusa consists essentially of two membranes, inclosing a 

 variously shaped cavity, inasmuch as its various organs are so com- 

 posed." 



I have thus given Huxley's own words, inasmuch as Professor 



