Iviii 



•again and again profited by his advice and advocacy, as when, in 

 1862, he defended their claims for time against the attack of the 

 physicists, his heart was not with them. Fossils to him were of little 

 value as geological tokens compared with what they were worth as 

 starting points for morphological inquiries. Just as he had used the 

 Devonian fishes as guides for the investigation of piscine morphology, 

 (which led him to the recognition of the peculiar structure of the 

 crossopterygian fin), and, later on, to the distinction of the two 

 types (hyostylic and autostylic) of piscine jaw-suspension, as well as 

 to a comparison of the paired fin of the fish with the pentadactyle limb, 

 so the fossil reptiles of the Elgin sandstones with dinosaurian and 

 labyrinth odontian remains, as well as other amphibian, reptilian, and 

 avian specimens, led him to far-reaching researches into reptilian 

 and avian morphology. Into these researches — for the aspirations 

 towards a physiological career had by force of circumstance by this 

 time quite died away — he threw himself with characteristic ardour. 

 Starting with the first papers on " Plesiosaurus Etheridgii, from 

 Glastonbury," in 1858, on " Stagonolepis Robertsonii, from the Elgin 

 sandstones," and " On some Amphibian and Reptilian Remains, from 

 South Africa and Australia " in 1859, he was occupied during the 

 whole of this decennium and the earlier part of the succeeding one in 

 putting forth numerous papers dealing with the questions arising out 

 of the fossils, which fate, in opposition to his early wishes, had thus 

 thrust upon him. One great consequence of these researches was 

 that science was enriched by a clear demonstration of the many and 

 olose afiinities between reptiles and birds, so that the two hencefor- 

 ward came to be known under the joint title of Sauropsida, the 

 •amphibia being at the same time more distinctly separated from the 

 reptiles, and their relations to fishes more clearly signified by the 

 joint title of Ichthyopsida. At the same time proof was brought 

 forward that the line of descent of the Sauropsida clearly diverged 

 from that cf the Mammalia, both starting from some common 

 ancestry. And besides this great generalisation, the importance of 

 which, both from a classificatory and from an evolutional point of 

 view, needs no comment, there came out of the same researches 

 numerous lesser contributions to the advancement of morphological 

 knowledge, including among others an attempt, in many respects 

 successful, at a classification of birds. 



In the same decennium Huxley's scientific activity carried him 

 into yet another field of inquiry. One interest of the doctrine of 

 Natural Selection lay in its bearings towards the problem of the 

 relation of Man to the lower animals ; it offered a new guide for the 

 study of the Natural History of Man ; it awakened a new interest, 

 which Huxley did not neglect to foster, in ethnological and anthro- 

 pological inquiries. In all his utterances on the general bearings of 



