Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work | Page 7

P. Chalmers Mitchell
was English to the backbone, and he made some
enquiries as to my student career, finally desiring me to hold myself
ready for examination. Having passed this, I was in Her Majesty's
service, and entered on the books of Nelson's old ship, the Victory, for
duty at Haslar Hospital, about a couple of months after I made my
application."
About the same time he passed the examination of the Royal College of
Surgeons and so became a fully qualified medical man. Haslar Hospital
was the chief naval hospital to which invalided sailors were sent. There
was a considerable staff of young surgeons, as navy surgeons were
usually sent for a term to work in the hospital before being gazetted to a
ship in commission. In connection with the hospital, there was a
museum of natural history containing a collection of considerable
importance slowly gathered from the gifts of sailors and officers. The
museum curator was an enthusiastic naturalist, and Huxley must have
had the opportunity of extending his knowledge of at least the external
characters of many forms of life hitherto unknown to him. A few years
later, the curator of the museum, with the help of two of Huxley's
successors, published a Manual of Natural History for the Use of
Travellers, and it is certain that Huxley at least did not lose at Haslar
any of the enthusiasm for zoölogy with which he had been inspired at
the Charing Cross Hospital. The chief of the hospital was Sir John
Richardson, an excellent naturalist, and well known as an arctic
explorer. He seems to have recognised the peculiar ability of his young

assistant, and although he was a silent, reserved man, who seldom
encouraged his assistants by talking to them, he made several attempts
to obtain a suitable post for Huxley. Such a post was that of surgeon to
H.M.S. Rattlesnake, then about to start under the command of Captain
Owen Stanley for surveying work in the Torres Straits. Captain Stanley
had expressed a wish for a surgeon who knew something of science,
and, on the recommendation of Sir John Richardson, obtained the post
for Huxley. There was, however, to be a special naturalist attached to
the expedition, but Huxley had the opportunity he wanted. After a brief
stay of seven months at the Haslar Hospital he left it for his ship, and
thus definitely entered on his work in the world.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: This and many other details in this chapter are taken from
an autobiographical sketch in the first volume of Huxley's collected
essays published by Macmillan, London, 1894.]
CHAPTER II
THE VOYAGE OF THE "RATTLESNAKE"
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.
Her Majesty's ship the Rattlesnake, one of the old class of 28-gun ships,
sailed from Plymouth for the Torres Straits and the Australian seas on
December 12, 1846. Her commander was Captain Owen Stanley, a
young but distinguished officer, the son of the Bishop of Norwich and a
brother of Dean Stanley, who afterwards played so great a part in the
social and religious history of England. She carried a complement of
180 officers and men, and was attended by the Bramble and the
Castlereagh, two small vessels of light draught, whose purpose was to
precede her in shallow waters. The young colonies of Australia were
developing commerce with the mother country, and the business of the
Rattlesnake was to survey the waters round about the Torres Straits,
that the passage towards India on the homeward trip might be made

safer. Incidentally the vessel was to land a treasure of £50,000 at the
Cape of Good Hope, and another of £15,000 at the Mauritius. The
Admiralty Commissioners left full powers to Captain Stanley to carry
out the details of his mission according to his own judgment, but he
was solemnly warned upon two points. Many very unfortunate
casualties had occurred when sailors came in contact with the
little-known savages of the southern seas, and the Admiralty instructed
him as follows:
"In stretching off from the Barrier Reefs to the eastward, in order to
explore the safety of the sea intervening between them and Louisiade
and New Guinea, you will have occasion to approach these shores, in
which case you must constantly be on your guard against the
treacherous disposition of their inhabitants. All barter for refreshments
must be conducted under the eye of an officer, and every pains be taken
to avoid giving any just cause of offence to their prejudices, especially
with respect to their women."
The second warning concerned grave international matters. European
politics were in the unsettled condition which, after the illusive
international courtesies of the Great Exhibition of 1851, ended in the
Crimean War, and it
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