2 An Appreciation : 
The course was repeated in 1875 by Professor Vines and 
myself with more confidence and went on day by day for eight 
weeks. This was my first acquaintance with Marshall Ward, who 
was one of the students. He came from Manchester, where his 
family was well-known, and had I believe received his early 
training at Owens’ College. He had also 1 think attended one 
of Huxley’s courses, and was therefore not unfamiliar with 
laboratory methods. Vines and I soon discovered that we had got 
hold of a man of exceptional ability. In the examination at the 
end of the course he soared away from all the other students and 
stood alone at the head of the first class. The strain of the work 
on both teachers and students was certainly severe : there was the 
keenest competition amongst the best men to respond to the 
demands made upon them, and the tension was sometimes rather 
acute. On one occasion Marshall Ward fainted at his work from 
no other cause I think than over-excitement. 
The novelty of the method attracted a good many visitors, and 
it was sometimes difficult, especially in the case of Kitchin Parker 
the comparative anatomist, to keep them from monopolising the 
students’ microscopes. A young man, L. A. Lucas, had acquired 
the prescriptive right to frequent the laboratory as a previous 
pupil of Huxley’s. Personally I had little communication with him, 
and he must have discovered Marshall Ward for himself, though no 
doubt he became aware of the opinion which Vines and I had 
formed. 
Marshall Ward was in fact exceptionally skilful in manipula¬ 
tion, an excellent draughtsman, and already showed the power of 
seeking and grasping the principles that underlie phenomena 
which he so conspicuously displayed all through life. But although 
I was greatly interested in him, I was not in a position to suggest 
any career at the moment beyond taking up teaching under the 
Science and Art Department, for which he became officially 
qualified. 
However the opportunity came not long after in the least 
expected way. He called on me one day to tell me a strange story 
and to ask my advice. He had received an anonymous letter 
telling him that if he would enter at the University of Cambridge, 
he would find a sufficient sum of money to his credit at Mortlock’s 
Bank to pay his expenses. The acceptance of such a proposal 
involved a certain amount of risk, but I advised him to take it. By 
Vines’s advice he became a candidate for, and secured, an 
