10 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 126. 



which is also thin and wavy-margined. Placed' 

 upon a mass of Sargassiim in an aquarium, the 

 Scyllaea was hard to find, so closely did it imi- 

 tate the appearance of the leaves. To make 

 this an undoubted case, the Scyllaea should 

 have been found upon the gulf- weed, and 

 should never occur anywhere else.^ This was 

 found on the sand ; and it is the only specimen 

 that has ever been found by our party, so that 

 we may consider it a rarit^^ As it can swim 

 very readily, almost like a heteropod in this 

 respect, and is naturally found only in the out- 

 side waters, the chances were against their be- 

 ing found in any numbers. It seems to me 

 that there can be but little doubt that this crea- 

 ture presents another interesting case of mim- 

 icry, and deserves mention, and additional 

 observation if any one is so situated as to be 

 able to make it. Henry Leslie Osborn. 



PROFESSOR HUXLEY ON DARWIN. 



Our readers have been informed, that, through 

 popular international subscription, a fund had been 

 raised to erect a statue to Charles Darwin, and that 

 this was recently unveiled with appropriate ceremo- 

 nies at the new museum of natural history in South 

 Kensington. We copy from Nature the address upon 

 that occasion, made by Professor Huxley in the name 

 of the committee, to the Prince of Wales as repre- 

 sentative of the trustees of the British museum. 

 We accompany it by a portrait and signature of 

 Darwin, taken from a photograph obtained in Lon- 

 don in 1872, and inscribed, " I like this photograph 

 better than any other which has ever been taken of 

 me. — Ch. Darwin." 



"Your royal highness, — It is now three years 

 since the announcement of the death of our famous 

 countryman, Charles Darwin, gave rise to a manifes- 

 tation of public feeling, not only in these realms, 

 but throughout the civilized world, which, if I mis- 

 take not, is without precedent in the modest annals 

 of scientific biography. 



"The causes of this deep and wide outburst of 

 emotion are not far to seek. We had lost one of 

 those rare ministers and interpreters of nature whose 

 names mark epochs in the advance of natural knowl- 

 edge; for, whatever be the ultimate verdict of pos- 

 terity upon this or that opinion which Mr. Darwin 

 has propounded, whatever adumbrations or antici- 

 pations of his doctrines may be found in the writings 

 of his predecessors, the broad fact remains, that 

 since the publication, and by reason of the publica- 

 tion, of the ' Origin of species,' the fundamental 

 conceptions and the aims of the students of living 

 nature have been completely changed. From that 

 work has sprung a great renewal, a true instauratio 

 magna of the zoological and botanical sciences. 



1 Dr. Breitenbach, in the article above referred to, mentions 

 without any names, and with too vague description for indentifi- 

 cation, a creature on the Sargassum that would seem to be Scyl- 

 laea. 



" But the impulse thus given to scientific thought 

 rapidly spread beyond the ordinarily recognized lim- 

 its of biology. Psychology, ethics, cosmology, were 

 stirred to their foundations ; and the * Origin of 

 species' proved itself to be the fixed point which 

 the general doctrine of evolution needed in order 

 to move the world. 'Darwinism,' in one form or 

 another, sometimes strangely distorted and muti- 

 lated, became an every-day topic of men's speech, the 

 object of an abundance both of vituperation and of 

 praise more often than of serious study. 



"It is curious, now, to remember how largely, at 

 first, the objectors predominated; but, considering 

 the usual fate of new views, it is still more curious 

 to consider for how short a time the phase of vehe- 

 ment opposition lasted. Before twenty years had 

 passed, not only had the importance of Mr. Darwin's 

 work been fully recognized, but the world had dis- 

 cerned the simple, earnest, generous character of 

 the man, that shone through every page of his 

 writings. 



"I imagine that reflections such as these swept 

 through the minds alike of loving friends and of 

 honorable antagonists when Mr. Darwin died, and 

 that they were at one in the desire to honor the 

 memory of the man, who, without fear and without 

 reproach, had successfully fought the hardest intel- 

 lectual battle of these days. 



" It was in satisfaction of these just and generous 

 impulses that our great naturalist's remains were 

 deposited in Westminster Abbey; and that imme- 

 diately afterwards, a public meeting, presided over 

 by my lamented predecessor, Mr. Spottiswoode, was 

 held in the rooms of the Royal society for the pur- 

 pose of considering what further steps should be 

 taken towards the same end. 



" It was resolved to invite subscriptions, with the 

 view of erecting a statue of Mr. Darwin in some 

 suitable locality, and to devote any surplus to the 

 advancement of the biological sciences. Contribu- 

 tions at once flowed in from Austria, Belgium, 

 Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, 

 Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzer- 

 land, the United States, and the British Colonies, no 

 less than from all parts of the three kingdoms ; and 

 they came from all classes of the community. To 

 mention one interesting case, Sweden sent in 2,296 

 subscriptions 'from all sorts of people;' as the dis- 

 tinguished man of science who transmitted them 

 wrote, 'from the bishop to the seamstress, and in 

 sums from five pounds to twopence.' 



" The executive committee has thus been enabled 

 to carry out the objects proposed. A ' Darwin fund ' 

 has been created, which is to be held in trust by the 

 Royal society, and is to be employed in the promo- 

 tion of biological research. The execution of the 

 statue was intrusted to Mr. Boehm ; and I think that 

 those who had the good fortune to know Mr. Darwin 

 personally will admire the power of artistic divina- 

 tion which has enabled the sculptor to place before 

 us so very characteristic a likeness of one whom he 

 had not seen. 



"It appeared to the committee, that, whether they 



