MEMOIR OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY. 265 



sea between that reef and New Guinea and the Louisiade Archi- 

 pelago. Just as Darwin's chance of distinguishing himself in 

 science came to him when he was appointed as naturalist on 

 board the ' Beagle ' in her voyage round the world, so Huxley's 

 post on the ' Kattlesnake ' served as his introduction to scientific 

 fame. 



It was by his careful and minute study of the marine animals 

 which were collected in the far-off seas visited by the vessel of 

 which he was surgeon that he established the scientific reputation 

 so early begun. His observations on the anatomy and affinities 

 of the Medusce and other marine forms appeared from time to 

 time in the publications of the Royal and the Linnean Societies, 

 and the Ray Society issued his important work on * Oceanic 

 Hydrozoa.' It was not till 1850 that his four years' voyage 

 ended, and when it did there also ended Huxley's connection 

 with the Royal Navy. In order to devote himself to science 

 he resigned his position, and set himself vigorously to the work 

 of arranging and tabulating the facts which he had accumulated 

 during the voyage. 



In 1851 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; in 

 1852 received one of the Society's Royal Medals ; and in 1853 

 published, in the volume of the Society's ' Transactions,' a 

 memoir on " The Morphology of the Cephalous Mollusca." Up 

 to this time his scientific labours had been carried on upon 

 but slender pecuniary resources, but in 1854 he was appointed 

 to a Government position as Professor of Natural History and 

 Palaeontology in the Royal School of Mines, succeeding Prof. 

 Edward Forbes in the chair. He was also given the curatorship 

 of the fossil collections in the Museum of Practical Geolog}\ 



In course of time he became Fullerian Professor of Physi- 

 ology at the Royal Institution, and Examiner in Physiology and 

 Comparative Anatomy to the London University. As Croonian 

 Lecturer to the Royal Society, to which post he was elected in 

 1858, he chose for his subject, " The Theory of the Vertebrate 

 Skull." Jointly with Professor Tyndall, he was the author of 

 ' Observations on Glaciers,' a work resulting from a visit paid by 

 the two friends to Switzerland in 1856. Vertebrate morphology 

 and palaeontology, however, were the subjects which chiefly 

 engaged his attention in these years, and by his works on these 

 subjects he will always be best remembered. 



