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gave his first Friday evening lecture at the Royal Institution, on 

 " Animal Individuality." It is encouraging to others to know that 

 the superb lucidity and constrained biting eloquence which later on 

 marked his public speaking were not present from the first. Though 

 he was always helped by his striking skill as a draughtsman, his expo- 

 sitions of his themes seemed at first halting and imperfect. He had, 

 like others, to learn that a public audience do not grasp with avidity a 

 truth presented to them, irrespective of the manner in which it is laid 

 before them. He talked at first " above the heads of his hearers," 

 thinking that they could see things as clearly and as eagerly as he 

 did himself. Indeed there is a tale told that after a lecture in a 

 suburban athenaeum, " On the Relation of Animals to Plants," in 

 which he had discussed before his common-place audience some of 

 the most fundamental biological problems, there was a general 

 expression of the desire that the committee would never invite that 

 young man to lecture again. 



He held during the years 1856-57-58, the post of Fullerian Pro- 

 fessor of Physiology in the Royal Institution, choosing for the title 

 of the first two courses Physiology and Comparative Anatomy, for his 

 face was as yet turned towards physiology. The third course, how- 

 ever, was " On the Principles of Biology." 



Then, like most other young professional men of science, he 

 had to eke out his not too ample income by labours undertaken 

 chiefly for their pecuniary reward. He acted as examiner, conduct- 

 ing, for instance, during the years 1856-1863, and again 1865-1870, 

 the examinations in Physiology and Comparative Anatomy at the 

 University of London, making even an examination paper feel the 

 influence of the new spirit in biology ; and among his examinees at 

 that time there was at least one who, knowing Huxley's writings, 

 but his writings only, looked forward to the viva voce test, not as a 

 trial, but as an occasion of delight. And he wrote almost incessantly 

 for all editors who were prepared to give adequate pay to a pen able 

 to deal with scientific themes in a manner at once exact and popular, 

 incisive and correct. 



And when he had done all this, to say nothing of the unpaid 

 demands for the administration of science made on him as on all men 

 of science, he had yet to do what was his main work, the prosecution 

 of his inquiries. For the first few years he devoted himself mainly 

 towards completing his " Rattlesnake " work. He followed up the 

 paper on the " Medusas," mentioned above, by various communica- 

 tions on the same theme, published in various channels, and embodied 

 his results in the monograph " On the Oceanic Hydrozoa," the publi- 

 cation of which, delayed by the hope of obtaining assistance from 

 my Lords of the Admiralty, did not take place until 1858. In 1853 

 there appeared in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' his remarkable 



