Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work

Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch
Of His Life And Work

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of
His Life
And Work, by P. Chalmers Mitchell This eBook is for the use of
anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project
Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.net
Title: Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work
Author: P. Chalmers Mitchell
Release Date: October 25, 2005 [EBook #16935]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THOMAS
HENRY HUXLEY ***

Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, LN Yaddanapudi and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was made using scans of public domain works from the University
of Michigan Digital Libraries.)

[Illustration: THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY]

Leaders in Science
THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORK
BY
P. CHALMERS MITCHELL, M.A. (_Oxon._)
G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK
27 WEST TWENTY THIRD STREET
LONDON
24 BEDFORD STREET STRAND
The Knickerbocker Press
1900

COPYRIGHT 1900
BY
G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
The Knickerbocker Press, New York

PREFACE
This volume is in no sense an intimate or authorised biography of
Huxley. It is simply an outline of the external features of his life and an
account of his contributions to biology, to educational and social
problems, and to philosophy and metaphysics. In preparing it, I have
been indebted to his own Autobiography, to the obituary notice written
by Sir Michael Foster for the Royal Society of London, to a sketch of
him by Professor Howes, his successor at the Royal College of Science,
and to his published works. The latter consist of many well-known
separate volumes which are familiar to all zoölogists, and of a vast
number of memoirs and essays scattered in various scientific and
general publications. The general Essays were collected into nine
volumes, revised by himself in the later years of his life, and published
by Messrs. Macmillan. The Scientific Memoirs, thanks to the generous
enterprise of the same publishing firm, with which he was so long
associated, and to the pious labours of Sir Michael Foster and Professor
Ray Lankester, are in process of reissue in the form of four volumes,
two of which have now appeared. These will contain all his important
contributions to science, with the exception of a large separate treatise
on the Oceanic Hydrozoa published by the Ray Society in 1859. There
is also announced a formal Biography, prepared by his son, so that
future admirers or students of Huxley's work will be in an exceptionally
favourable position.
LONDON, 1900.
P. CHALMERS MITCHELL.

Leaders in Science

CONTENTS
PAGE PREFACE iii

CHAPTER I
FROM SCHOOL TO LIFE-WORK 1
Birth--Parentage--School-days--Choice of Medical Profession--Charing
Cross Hospital--End of Medical Studies--Admission to Naval Medical
Service.
CHAPTER II
THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLESNAKE 13
The Objects of the Voyage--The Route--The Naturalist and the
Surgeon--Collecting and Dredging--Stay in Sydney--Adventures with
the Natives--Comparison with Darwin's Voyage on the Beagle.
CHAPTER III
FLOATING CREATURES OF THE SEA 30
The Nature of Floating Life--Memoir on Medusæ Accepted by the
Royal Society--Old and New Ideas of the Animal Kingdom--What
Huxley Discovered in Medusæ--His Comparison of them with
Vertebrate Embryos
CHAPTER IV
EARLY DAYS IN LONDON 46
Scientific Work as Unattached Ship-Surgeon--Introduction to London
Scientific Society--Translating, Receiving, and
Lecturing--Ascidians--Molluscs and the Archetype--Criticism of
Pre-Darwinian Evolution--Appointment to Geological Survey.
CHAPTER V
CREATURES OF THE PAST 67

Beginning Palæontological Work--Fossil Amphibia and
Reptilia--Ancestry of Birds--Ancestry of the Horse--Imperfect
European Series Completed by Marsh's American Fossils--Meaning of
Geological Contemporaneity--Uniformitarianism and Catastrophism
Compared with Evolution in Geology--Age of the Earth--Intermediate
and Linear Types.
CHAPTER VI
HUXLEY AND DARWIN 89
Early Ideas on Evolution--Erasmus Darwin--Lamarck--Herbert
Spencer--Difference between Evolution and Natural
Selection--Huxley's Preparation for Evolution--The Novelty of Natural
Selection--The Advantage of Natural Selection as a Working
Hypothesis--Huxley's Unchanged Position with regard to Evolution and
Natural Selection from 1860 to 1894.
CHAPTER VII
THE BATTLE FOR EVOLUTION 110
Huxley's Prevision of the Battle--The Causes of the Battle--The Times
Review--Sir Richard Owen attacks Darwinism in the _Edinburgh
Review_--Bishop Wilberforce attacks in the _Quarterly
Review_--Huxley's Scathing Replies--The British Association Debates
at Oxford--Huxley and Wilberforce--Résumé of Huxley's Exact
Position with Regard to Evolution and to Natural Selection.
CHAPTER VIII
VERTEBRATE ANATOMY 128
The Theory of the Vertebrate Skull--Goethe, Oken, Cuvier, and
Owen--Huxley Defends Goethe--His own Contributions to the
Theory--The Classification of Birds--Huxley Treats them as "Extinct
Animals"--Geographical Distribution--Sclater's Regions--Huxley's

Suggestions.
CHAPTER IX
MAN AND THE APES 144
Objections to Zoölogical Discussion of Man's Place--Owen's
Prudence--Huxley's Determination to Speak out--Account of his
Treatment of _Man's Place in Nature_--Additions Made by More
Recent Work.
CHAPTER X
SCIENCE AS A BRANCH OF EDUCATION 167
Science-Teaching Fifty Years Ago--Huxley's Insistence on
Reform--Science Primers--Physiography--Elementary
Physiology--_The Crayfish_--Manuals of Anatomy--Modern
Microscopical