Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work | Page 4

way of life has made me acquainted with all sorts and
conditions of men, from the highest to the lowest, I deliberately affirm
that the society I fell into at school was the worst I have ever known.
We boys were average lads with much the same inherent capacity for
good and evil as any others; but the people who were set over us cared
about as much for our intellectual and moral welfare as if they were
baby-farmers. We were left to the operation of the struggle for
existence among ourselves, and bullying was the least of the ill
practices current among us. Almost the only cheerful reminiscence in
connection with the place which arises in my mind is that of a battle
which I had with one of my class-mates, who had bullied me until I
could stand it no longer. I was a very slight lad, but there was a
wild-cat element in me which, when roused, made up for my lack of
weight, and I licked my adversary effectually. However, one of my first
experiences of the extremely rough and ready nature of justice, as
exhibited by the course of things in general, arose out of the fact that
_I_--the victor--had a black eye, while he--the vanquished--had none,
so that I got into disgrace and he did not. One of the greatest shocks I
ever received in my life was to be told, a dozen years afterwards by the
groom who brought me my horse in a stable-yard in Sydney, that he
was my quondam antagonist. He had a long story of family misfortune

to account for his position--but at that time it was necessary to deal
very cautiously with mysterious strangers in New South Wales, and on
enquiry I found that the unfortunate young man had not only been 'sent
out,' but had undergone more than one colonial conviction."
Huxley was soon removed from school and continued his own
education for several years, by reading of the most desultory sort. His
special inclinations were towards mechanical problems, and had he
been able to follow his own wishes there is little doubt but that he
would have entered on the profession of an engineer. It is probable that
there was a great deal more in his wishes than the familiar inclination
of a clever boy to engineering. All through the pursuit of anatomy,
which was the chief business of his life, it was the structure of animals,
the different modifications of great ground-plans which they presented,
that interested him. But the opportunity for engineering did not present
itself, and at an exceedingly early age he began to study medicine. Two
brothers-in-law were doctors, and this accidental fact probably
determined his choice. In these days the study of medicine did not
begin as now with a general and scientific education, but the young
medical student was apprenticed to a doctor engaged in practice. He
was supposed to learn the compounding of drugs in the dispensary
attached to the doctor's consulting-room; to be taught the dressing of
wounds and the superficial details of the medical craft while he pursued
his studies in anatomy under the direction of the doctor. Huxley's
master was his brother-in-law, Dr. Salt, a London practitioner, and he
began his work when only twelve or thirteen years of age. In this
system everything depended upon the superior; under the careful
guidance of a conscientious and able man it was possible for an apt
pupil to learn a great deal of science and to become an expert in the
treatment of disease. Huxley, however, had only a short experience of
this kind of training. He was taken by some senior student friends to a
post-mortem examination, and although then, as all through his life, he
was most sensitive to the disagreeable side of anatomical pursuits, on
this occasion he gratified his curiosity too ardently. He did not cut
himself, but in some way poisonous matter from the body affected him,
and he fell into so bad a state of health that he had to be sent into the
country to recruit. He lived for some time at a farmhouse in

Warwickshire with friends of his father and slowly recovered health.
From that time, however, all through his life, he suffered periodically
from prostrating dyspepsia. After some months devoted to promiscuous
reading he resumed his work under his brother-in-law in London. He
confesses that he was far from a model student.
"I worked extremely hard when it pleased me, and when it did
not,--which was a frequent case,--I was extremely idle (unless making
caricatures of one's pastors and masters is to be called a branch of
industry), or else wasted my energies in wrong directions. I read
everything I could lay hands upon, including novels, and took up all