324 . MY LIFE 



from above and an artistic colouring of the figures and acces- 

 sories, each group might be made to appear as life-like as some 

 of the best figures at Madame Tussaud's, or as the grand 

 interiors of cathedrals, which were then exhibited at the 

 Diorama. In the museum of the future, such groups will find 

 their place in due succession to the groups illustrating the life 

 histories of the other mammalia ; but ample space and a very 

 careful attention to details must be given in order to ensure 

 a successful and attractive representation. 



;! 



It was at this time that I first saw Huxley. At one of 



the evening meetings of the Zoological Society (in December, 

 1852) he gave an account of some Echinococci found in the 

 liver of a zebra which died in the gardens. He did not read 

 the paper, but, with the help of diagrams and sketches on the 

 blackboard, showed us clearly its main points of structure, its 

 mode of development, and' the strange transformations it 

 underwent when the parent worm migrated from the intestine 

 to other parts of the body of the animal. I was particularly 

 struck with his wonderful power of making a difficult and 

 rather complex subject perfectly intelligible and extremely 

 interesting to persons who, like myself, were absolutely ignor- 

 ant of the whole group. Although he was two years younger 

 than myself, Huxley had already made a considerable repu- 

 tation as a comparative anatomist, was a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, and a few months later was appointed Professor 

 of Natural History and Palaeontology at the Royal School 

 of Mines. I was amazed, too, at his complete mastery of the 

 subject, and his great amount of technical knowledge of a 

 kind to which I have never given any attention, the structure 

 and development of the lower forms of animal life. From 

 that time I always looked up to Huxley as being immeasur- 

 ably superior to myself in scientific knowledge, and supposed 

 him to be much older than I was. Many years afterwards 

 I was surprised to find that he was really younger. 



About this time I read before the same Society a few 

 notes on the species of monkeys I had observed on the 



