xlvii 



acquired during this time a knowledge of French and of German. 

 There is no record of his having received any other than professional 

 tuition, and it must have been chiefly at least by his own efforts that 

 he acquired his large knowledge of other than professional subjects. 



In October, 1842, he and his elder brother, James, having obtained 

 free entrance Scholarships, entered Charing Cross Hospital. Here 

 he came under the influence of Thomas Wharton Jones, then the 

 lecturer at the Medical School there on Anatomy and Physiology, 

 whose physiological researches, especially those on the ovum and on 

 blood corpuscles, are of classic value. He threw himself with ardour 

 into anatomical and physiological studies, as is shown by his obtain- 

 ing in the Honours division of the 1st M.B. examination at the 

 University of London, the second place (with a Medal), in Anatomy 

 and Physiology, the first place (with the exhibition) being taken by 

 W. H. Ransom, now the distinguished physician of Nottingham. 

 It is still more clearly shown by his having contributed, at Wharton 

 Jones' suggestion, to the 'Medical Gazette,' of November 28, 

 1845, a small paper, in which he demonstrated the existence of a 

 hitherto unrecognized layer in the inner root sheath of hairs, since 

 known as Huxley's layer. And indeed his subsequent career proves 

 that he must have already possessed at the time of his leaving the 

 hospital an exceedingly large and exact knowledge of comparative 

 anatomy, and of the then existing anatomical methods. Nor had he 

 neglected the more distinctly professional studies, though his heart 

 was not in these ; for in the winter of 1845-6, having completed his 

 course, he was prepared to offer himself at the examination for the 

 membership of the Royal College of Surgeons, but being as yet under 

 twenty-one years of age could not be admitted as a candidate. 



Wondering at this time what he " should do to meet the impera- 

 tive necessity for earning his own bread," he was urged by a fellow 

 student (the now Sir Joseph Fayrer) to offer himself for the medical 

 service of the Royal Navy. He accordingly wrote directly to Sir 

 William Burnett, then Director- General for the Medical Service 

 of the Navy, was accepted, and on the 13th March, 1846, was entered 

 as assistant surgeon on the books of Nelson's old ship, the " Victory," 

 for duty at Haslar Hospital. At about the same time he passed the 

 examination of the Royal College of Surgeons. At Haslar, where he 

 had for a messmate the late Sir Andrew Clark, he attracted the 

 notice of his chief, Sir John Richardson, the Arctic traveller, who 

 shewed his appreciation of the merits of the young navy surgeon by 

 keeping him at Haslar until an opportunity offered of placing him 

 in some post suitable to his obvious talents. Such a post was that of 

 Assistant- Surgeon to H.M. surveying ship " Rattlesnake," then about 

 to start under the command of Captain Owen Stanley, brother of the 

 late Dean Stanley, and son of the Bishop of Norwich, to survey 



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