THE 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
FEBRUARY, 1884. 
I. PROFESSOR HUXLEY’S DARWINISM. 
By Oswald Dawson. 
(1 In England the leader of the Darwinian party was Prof. 
Huxley. . . . That the ‘ Origin of Species ’ was driven home to men’s 
minds by an interpreter of such power, probably cut short by some 
years the interval of hesitation which necessarily preceded the period 
of full recognition.” — Prof. L. C. Miall. 
“ Darwin expounded and illustrated by Huxley is a most formidable 
combination, and one that might well quench the ardour and damp the 
courage of any one who wished merely to cavil.” — Dr. Charles 
Elam. 
<*4 
N i860 Prof. Huxley, whom Dr. St. George Mivart tells 
s us ls “ Mr. Darwin’s authorised interpreter,” assumed 
the “ office of an interpreter between the ‘ Origin of 
Species ’ and the public,” and he “ added for some time in 
the capacity of a sort of under-nurse ” to the book. The 
appellation “ under-nurse ” is somewhat appropriate, for 
when celebrating “ the coming of age of the ‘ Origin of 
Species ’ ” by a leddure, Prof. Huxley did not mention the 
theory of Natural Selection, — a circumstance the more un- 
fortunate inasmuch as twenty years previously he had remarked 
that “ twenty years hence naturalists may be in a position to 
say whether ” or no “ species offer residual phenomena, here 
and there, not explicable by natural selection.” According 
to the “ Times ” report of the Rede Lecdure, 1883, Prof. 
Pluxley’s chief objedt on that occasion was “ to draw a 
sharp line of demarcation between this great and well- 
vouched truth [Evolution] and all the innumerable collateral 
speculations which might stand or fall without touching the 
central core of the dodtrine.” This anxiety to divorce 
VOL. vi. (third series) f 
