1859-1860.
[The programme laid down in 1857 was steadily carried out through a
great part of 1859. Huxley published nine monographs, chiefly on fossil
Reptilia, in the proceedings of the Geological Society and of the
Geological Survey, one on the armour of crocodiles at the Linnean, and
"Observations on the Development of some Parts of the Skeleton of
Fishes," in the "Journal of Microscopical Science."
Among the former was a paper on Stagonolepis, a creature from the Elgin
beds, which had previously been ranked among the fishes. From some new
remains, which he worked out of the stone with his own hands, Huxley
made out that this was a reptile closely allied to the Crocodiles; and
from this and the affinities of another fossil, Hyperodapedon, from
neighbouring beds, determined the geological age to which the Elgin beds
belonged. A good deal turned upon the nature of the scales from the back
and belly of this animal, and a careful comparison with the scales of
modern crocodiles--a subject till then little investigated--led to the
paper at the Linnean already mentioned.
The paper on fish development was mainly based upon dissections of the
young of the stickleback. Fishes had been divided into two classes
according as their tails are developed evenly on either side of the line
of the spine, which was supposed to continue straight through the centre
of the tail, or lopsided, with one tail fin larger than the other. This
investigation showed that the apparently even development was only an
extreme case of lopsidedness, the continuation of the "chorda," which
gives rise to the spine, being at the top of the upper fin, and both
fins being developed on the same side of it. Lopsidedness as such,
therefore, was not to be regarded as an embryological character in
ancient fishes; what might be regarded as such was the absence of a bony
sheath to the end of the "chorda" found in the more developed fishes.
Further traces of this bony structure were shown to exist, among other
piscine resemblances, in the Amphibia. Finally the embryological facts
now observed in the development of the bones of the skull were of great
importance,] "as they enable us to understand, on the one hand, the
different modifications of the palato-suspensorial apparatus in fishes,
and on the other hand the relations of the components of this apparatus
to the corresponding parts in other Vertebrata," [fishes, reptiles, and
mammals presenting a well-marked series of gradations in respect to this
point.
This part of the paper had grown out of the investigations begun for the
essay on the Vertebrate Skull, just as that on Jacare and Caiman from
inquiry into the scales of Stagonolepis.
Thus he was still able to devote most of his time to original research.
But though in his letter of March 27, 1855, below, he says,] "I never
write for the Reviews now, as original work is much more to my taste,"
[it appears from jottings in his 1859 notebook, such as "Whewell's
'History of Scientific Ideas,' as a Peg on which to hang Cuvier
article," [that he again found it necessary to supplement his income by
writing. He was still examiner at London University, and delivered six
lectures on Animal Motion at the London Institution and another at
Warwick. This lecture he had offered to give at the Warwick Museum as
some recognition of the willing help he had received from the assistants
when he came down to examine certain fossils there. On the way he
visited Rolleston at Oxford. The knowledge of Oxford life gained from
this and a later visit led him to write:--]
The more I see of the place the more glad I am that I elected to stay in
London. I see much to admire and like; but I am more and more convinced
that it would not suit me as a residence.
[Two more important points remain to be mentioned among the occupations
of the year. In January Huxley was elected Secretary of the Geological
Society, and with this office began a form of administrative work in the
scientific world which ceased only with his resignation of the
Presidency of the Royal Society in 1885.
Part of the summer Huxley spent in the North. On August 3 he went to
Lamlash Bay in Arran. Here Dr. Carpenter had, in 1855, discovered a
convenient cottage on Holy Island--the only one, indeed, on the
island--well suited for naturalists; the bay was calm and suitable both
for the dredge and for keeping up a vivarium. He proposed that either
the Survey should rent the whole island at a cost of some 50 pounds
sterling, or, failing this, that he would take the cottage himself, if
Huxley would join him for two or three seasons and share the expense.
Huxley laid the plan before Sir R. Murchison, the head of the Survey,
who consented to try the plan for a course of years, during three months
in each year. "But," [he added,] "keep it experimental; for there are no
USEFUL fisheries such as delight Lord Stanley." [Here, then, with an
ascent of Goatfell for variety on the 21st, a month was passed in
trawling, and experiments on the spawning of the herring appear to have
been continued for him during the winter in Bute.
On the 29th Huxley left Lamlash for a trip through central and southern
Scotland, continuing his geological work for the Survey; and wound up by
attending the meeting of the British Association at Aberdeen, leaving
his wife and the three children at Aberdour, on the Fifeshire coast.
From Aberdeen, where Prince Albert was President of the Association,
Huxley writes on September 15:--]
Owen's brief address on giving up the presidential chair was exceedingly
good...I shall be worked like a horse here. There are all sorts of new
materials from Elgin, besides other things, and I daresay I shall have
to speak frequently. In point of attendance and money this is the best
meeting the Association ever had. In point of science, we shall
see...Tyndall has accepted the Physical chair with us, at which I am
greatly delighted.
[In this connection the following letter to Tyndall is interesting:--]
Aberdour, Fife, N. B., September 5, 1859.
My dear Tyndall,
I met Faraday on Loch Lomond yesterday, and learned from him that you
had returned, whereby you are a great sinner for not having written to
me. Faraday told me you were all sound, wind and limb, and had carried
out your object, which was good to hear.
Have you had any letter from Sir Roderick? If not, pray call in Jermyn
Street and see Reeks as soon as possible. [Mr. Trenham Reeks, who died
in 1879, was Registrar of the School of Mines, and Curator and Librarian
of the Museum of Practical Geology.]
The thing I have been hoping for for years past has come about,--Stokes
having resigned the Physical Chair in our place, in consequence of his
appointment to the Cambridge University Commission. This unfortunately
occurred only after our last meeting for the session, and after I had
left town, but Reeks wrote to me about it at once. I replied as soon as
I received his letter, and told him that I would take upon myself the
responsibility of saying that you would accept the chair if it were
offered you. I thought I was justified in this by various conversations
we have had; and, at any rate, I felt sure that it was better that I
should get into a mess than that you should lose the chance.
I know that Sir Roderick has written to you, but I imagine the letter
has gone to Chamounix, so pray put yourself into communication with
Reeks at once.
You know very well that the having you with us at Jermyn Street is a
project that has long been dear to my heart, partly on your own account,
but largely for the interest of the school. I earnestly hope that there
is no impediment in the way of your coming to us. How I am minded
towards you, you ought to know by this time; but I can assure you that
all the rest of us will receive you with open arms. Of that I am quite
sure.
Let me have a line to know your determination. I am on tenterhooks till
the thing is settled.
Can't you come up this way as you go to Aberdeen?
Ever yours faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
P.S.--I thought I might mention the Jermyn Street matter to Faraday
privately, and did so. He seemed pleased that the offer had been made.
[The acceptance of the lectureship at the School of Mines brought
Tyndall into the closest contact with Huxley for the next nine years,
until he resigned his lectureship in 1868 on succeeding Faraday as
superintendent of the Royal Institution.
On September 17 he writes:--]
Yesterday Owen and I foregathered in Section D. He read a very good and
important paper, and I got up afterwards and spoke exactly as I thought
about it, and praising many parts of it strongly. In his reply he was
unco civil and complimentary, so that the people who had come in hopes
of a row were (as I intended they should be) disappointed.
[A number of miscellaneous letters of this period are here grouped
together.]
14 Waverley Place, January 30, 1858.
My dear Hooker,
...I wish you wouldn't be apologetic about criticism from people who
have a right to criticise. I always look upon any criticism as a
compliment, not but what the old Adam in T.H.H. WILL arise and fight
vigorously against all impugnment, and irrespective of all odds in the
way of authority, but that is the way of the beast.
Why I value your and Tyndall's and Darwin's friendship so much is, among
other things, that you all pitch into me when necessary. You may depend
upon it, however blue I may look when in the wrong, it's wrath with
myself and nobody else.
[To his sister.]
The Government School of Mines, Jermyn Street, March 27, 1858.
My dearest Lizzie,
It is a month since your very welcome letter reached me. I had every
inclination and every intention to answer it at once, but the wear and
tear of incessant occupation (for your letter arrived in the midst of my
busiest time) has, I will not say deprived me of the leisure, but of
that tone of mind which one wants for writing a long letter. I fully
understand--no one should be better able to comprehend--how the same
causes may operate on you, but do not be silent so long again; it is bad
for both of us. I have loved but few people in my life, and am not
likely to care for any more unless it be my children. I desire therefore
rather to knit more firmly than to loosen the old ties, and of these
which is older or stronger than ours? Don't let us drift asunder again.
Your letter came just after the birth of my second child, a little girl.
I registered her to-day in the style and title of Jessie Oriana Huxley.
The second name is a family name of my wife's and not, as you might
suppose, taken from Tennyson. You will know why my wife and I chose the
first. We could not make you a godmother, as my wife's mother is one,
and a friend of ours had long since applied for the other vacancy, but
perhaps this is a better tie than that meaningless formality. My little
son is fifteen months old; a fair-haired, blue-eyed, stout little
Trojan, very like his mother. He looks out on the world with bold
confident eyes and open brow, as if he were its master. We shall try to
make him a better man than his father. As for the little one, I am told
she is pretty, and slavishly admit the fact in the presence of mother
and nurse, but between ourselves I don't see it. To my carnal eyes her
nose is the image of mine, and you know what that means. For though
wandering up and down the world and work have begun to sow a little
silver in my hair, they have by no means softened the outlines of that
remarkable feature.
You want to know what I am and where I am--well, here's a list of
titles. T.H.H., Professor of Natural History, Government School of
Mines, Jermyn Street; Naturalist to the Geological Survey; Curator of
the Paleontological collections (NON-OFFICIAL maid-of-all-work in
Natural Science to the Government); Examiner in Physiology and
Comparative Anatomy to the University of London; Fullerian Professor of
Physiology to the Royal Institution (but that's just over); F.R.S.,
F.G.S., etc. Member of a lot of Societies and Clubs, all of which cost
him a mint of money. Considered a rising man and not a bad fellow by his
friends--per contra greatly over-estimated and a bitter savage critic by
his enemies. Perhaps they are both right. I have a high standard of
excellence and am no respecter of persons, and I am afraid I show the
latter peculiarity rather too much. An internecine feud rages between
Owen and myself (more's the pity) partly on this account, partly from
other causes.
This is the account any third person would give you of what I am and of
what I am doing. He would probably add that I was very ambitious and
desirous of occupying a high place in the world's estimation. Therein,
however, he would be mistaken. An income sufficient to place me above
care and anxiety, and free scope to work, are the only things I have
ever wished for or striven for. But one is obliged to toil long and hard
for these, and it is only now that they are coming within my grasp. I
gave up the idea of going to Edinburgh because I doubted whether leaving
London was wise. Recently I have been tempted to put up for a good
physiological chair which is to be established at Oxford; but the
Government propose to improve my position at the School of Mines, and
there is every probability that I shall now permanently remain in
London. Indeed, it is high time that I should settle down to one line of
work. Hitherto, as you see by the somewhat varied list of my duties,
etc., above, I have been ranging over different parts of a very wide
field. But this apparent desultoriness has been necessary, for I knew
not for what branch of science I should eventually have to declare
myself. There are very few appointments open to men of science in this
country, and one must take what one can get and be thankful.
My health was very bad some years ago, and I had great fear of becoming
a confirmed dyspeptic, but thanks to the pedestrian tours in the Alps I
have taken for the past two years, I am wonderfully better this session,
and feel capable of any amount of work. It was in the course of one of
these trips that I went, as you have rightly heard, half way up Mont
Blanc. But I was not in training and stuck at the Grands Mulets, while
my three companions went on. I spent seventeen hours alone on that grand
pinnacle, the latter part of the time in great anxiety, for I feared my
friends were lost; and as I had no guide my own neck would have been in
considerable jeopardy in endeavouring to return amidst the maze of
crevasses of the Glacier des Bois. But it was glorious weather and the
grandest scenery in the world. In the previous year I saw much of the
Bernese and Monte Rosa country, journeying with a great friend of mine
well known as a natural philosopher, Tyndall, and partly seeking health
and partly exploring the glaciers. You will find an article of mine on
that subject in the "Westminster Review" for 1857.
I used at one time to write a good deal for that Review, principally the
Quarterly notice of scientific books. But I never write for the Reviews
now, as original work is much more to my taste. The articles you refer
to are not mine, as, indeed, you rightly divined. The only considerable
book I have translated is Kolliker's Histology--in conjunction with Mr.
Busk, an old friend of mine. All translation and article writing is
weary work, and I never do it except for filthy lucre. Lecturing I do
not like much better; though one way or another I have to give about
sixty or seventy a year.
Now then, I think that is enough about my "Ich." You shall have a
photographic image of him and my wife and child as soon as I can find
time to have them done...
1 Eldon Place, Broadstairs, September 5, 1858.
My dear Hooker,
I am glad Mrs. Hooker has found rest for the sole of her foot. I
returned her Tyndall's letter yesterday.
Wallace's impetus seems to have set Darwin going in earnest, and I am
rejoiced to hear we shall learn his views in full, at last. I look
forward to a great revolution being effected. Depend upon it, in natural
history, as in everything else, when the English mind fully determines
to work a thing out, it will do it better than any other.
I firmly believe in the advent of an English epoch in science and art,
which will lick the Augustan (which, by the bye, had neither science nor
art in our sense, but you know what I mean) into fits. So hooray, in the
first place, for the Genera plantarum. I can quite understand the need
of a new one, and I am right glad you have undertaken it. It seems to me
to be in all respects the sort of work for you, and exactly adapted to
your environment at Kew. I remember you mentioned to me some time ago
that you were thinking of it.
I wish I could even hope that such a thing would be even attempted in
the course of this generation for animals.
But with animal morphology in the state in which it is now, we have no
terminology that will stand, and consequently concise and comparable
definitions are in many cases impossible.
If old Dom. Gray [John Edward Gray (1800-1875) appointed Keeper of the
Zoological Collections in the British Museum in 1840.) were but an
intelligent activity instead of being a sort of zoological whirlwind,
what a deal he might do. And I am hopeless of Owen's comprehending what
classification means since the publication of the wonderful scheme which
adorns the last edition of his lectures.
As you say, I have found this a great place for "work of price." I have
finished the "Oceanic Hydrozoa" all but the bookwork, for which I must
have access to the B. M. Library--but another week will do him. My notes
are from eight to twelve years old, and really I often have felt like
the editor of somebody else's posthumous work.
Just now I am busy over the "Croonian," which must be done before I
return. I have been pulling at all the arguments as a spider does at his
threads, and I think they are all strong. If so the thing will do some
good.
I am perplexed about the N. H. Collections. The best thing, I firmly
believe, would be for the Economic Zoology and a set of well selected
types to go to Kensington, but I should be sorry to see the scientific
collection placed under any such auspices as those which govern the
"Bilers." I don't believe the clay soil of the Regent's Park would
matter a fraction--and to have a grand scientific zoological and
paleontological collection for working purposes close to the Gardens
where the living beasts are, would be a grand thing. I should not wonder
if the affair is greatly discussed at the B. A. at Leeds, and then,
perhaps, light will arise.
Have you seen that madcap Tyndall's letter in the "Times?" He'll break
his blessed neck some day, and that will be a great hole in the
efficiency of my scientific young England. We mean to return next
Saturday, and somewhere about the 16th of 17th I shall go down to York,
where I want to study Plesiosaurs. I shall return after the British
Association. The interesting question arises, Shall I have a row with
the Great O. there? What a capital title that is they give him of the
BRITISH Cuvier. He stands in exactly the same relation to the French as
British brandy to cognac.
Ever yours faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
Am I to send the "Gardener's Chronicle" on, and where? please. I have
mislaid the address.
Jermyn Street, October 25, 1858.
My dear Spencer,
I read your article on the "Archetype" the other day with great delight,
particularly the phrase which puts the Owenian and Cummingian
interpolations on the same footing. It is rayther strong, but quite
just.
I do not remember a word to object to, but I think I could have
strengthened your argument in one or two places. Having eaten the food,
will you let me have back the dish? I am winding up the "Croonian," and
want "L'Archetype" to refer to. So if you can let me have it I shall be
obliged. When do you return?
Ever yours faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
14 Waverley Place, January 1, 1859.
My dearest Lizzie,
If intentions were only acts, the quantity of letter paper covered with
my scrawl which you should have had by this time should have been
something wonderful. But I live at high pressure, with always a number
of things crying out to be done, and those that are nearest and call
loudest get done, while the others, too often, don't. However, this day
shall not go by without my wishing you all happiness in the new year,
and that wish you know necessarily includes all belonging to you, and my
love to them.
I have been long wanting to send you the photographs of myself, wife,
and boy, but one reason or other (Nettie's incessant ill-health being, I
am sorry to say, the chief) has incessantly delayed the procuring of the
last. However, at length, we have obtained a tolerably successful one,
though you must not suppose that Noel has the rather washed out look of
his portrait. That comes of his fair hair and blue gray eyes--for the
monkey is like his mother and has not an atom of resemblance to me.
He was two years old yesterday, and is the apple of his father's eye and
chief deity of his mother's pantheon, which at present contains only a
god and goddess. Another is expected shortly, however, so that there is
no fear of Olympus looking empty.
...Here is the 26th of January and no letter gone yet...Since I began
this letter I have been very busy with lectures and other sorts of work,
and besides, my whole household almost has been ill--chicks with
whooping cough, mother with influenza, a servant ditto. I don't know
whether you have such things in Tennessee.
Let me see what has happened to me that will interest you since I last
wrote. Did I tell you that I have finally made up my mind to stop in
London--the Government having made it worth my while to continue in
Jermyn Street? They give me 600 pounds sterling a year now, with a
gradual rise up to 800 pounds sterling, which I reckon as just enough to
live on if one keeps very quiet. However, it is the greatest possible
blessing to be paid at last, and to be free from all the abominable
anxieties which attend a fluctuating income. I can tell you I have had a
sufficiently hard fight of it.
When Nettie and I were young fools we agreed we would marry whenever we
had 200 pounds sterling a year. Well, we have had more than twice that
to begin upon, and how it is we have kept out of the Bench is a mystery
to me. But we HAVE, and I am inclined to think that the Missus has got a
private hoard (out of the puddings) for Noel.
I shall leave Nettie to finish this rambling letter. In the meanwhile,
my best love to you and yours, and mind you are a better correspondent
than your affectionate brother,
Tom.
[To Professor Leuckart.]
The Government School of Mines, Jermyn Street, London, January 30, 1859.
My dear Sir,
Our mutual friend, Dr. Harley, informs me that you have expressed a wish
to become possessed of a separate copy of my lectures, published in the
"Medical Times." I greatly regret that I have not one to send you. The
publisher only gave me half a dozen separate copies of the numbers of
the journal in which the Lectures appeared. Of these I sent one to
Johannes Muller and one to Professor Victor Carus, and the rest went to
other friends.
I am sorry to say that a mere fragment of what I originally intended to
have published has appeared, the series having been concluded when I
reached the end of the Crustacea. To say truth, the Lectures were not
fitted for the journal in which they appeared.
I did not know that anyone in Germany had noticed them until I received
the copy of your "Bericht" for 1856, which you were kind enough to send
me. I owe you many thanks for the manner in which you speak of them, and
I assure you it was a source of great pleasure and encouragement to me
to find so competent a judge as yourself appreciating and sympathising
with my objects.
Particular branches of zoology have been cultivated in this country with
great success, as you are well aware, but ten years ago I do not believe
that there were half a dozen of my countrymen who had the slightest
comprehension of morphology, and of what you and I should call
"Wissenschaftliche Zoologie."
Those who thought about the matter at all took Owen's osteological
extravaganzas for the ne plus ultra of morphological speculation.
I learned the meaning of Morphology and the value of development as the
criterion of morphological views--first, from the study of the Hydrozoa
during a long voyage, and secondly, from the writings of Von Baer. I
have done my best, both by precept and practice, to inaugurate better
methods and a better spirit than had long prevailed. Others have taken
the same views, and I confidently hope that a new epoch for zoology is
dawning among us. I do not claim for myself any great share in the good
work, but I have not flinched when there was anything to be done.
Under these circumstances you will imagine that it was very pleasant to
find on your side a recognition of what I was about.
I sent you, through the booksellers, some time ago a copy of my memoir
on Aphis. I find from Moleschott's "Untersuchungen" that you must have
been working at this subject contemporaneously with myself, and it was
very satisfactory to find so close a concordance in essentials between
our results. Your memoirs are extremely interesting, and to some extent
anticipated results at which my friend, Mr. Lubbock [The present Sir
John Lubbock, M.P.] (a very competent worker, with whose paper on
Daphnia you are doubtless acquainted), had arrived.
I should be very glad to know what you think of my views of the
composition of the articulate head.
I have been greatly interested also in your Memoir on Pentastomum. There
can be no difficulty about getting a notice of it in our journals, and,
indeed, I will see to it myself. Pray do me the favour to let me know
whenever I can serve you in this or other ways.
I shall do myself the pleasure of forwarding to you immediately, through
the booksellers, a lecture of mine on the Theory of the Vertebrate
Skull, which is just published, and also a little paper on the
development of the tail in fishes.
I am sorry to say that I have but little time for working at these
matters now, as my position at the School of Mines obliges me to confine
myself more and more to Paleontology.
However, I keep to the anatomical side of that sort of work, and so, now
and then, I hope to emerge from amidst the fossils with a bit of recent
anatomy.
Just at present, by the way, I am giving my disposable hours to the
completion of a monograph on the Calycophoridae and Physophoridae
observed during my voyage. The book ought to have been published eight
years ago. But for three years I could get no money from the Government,
and in the meanwhile you and Kolliker, Gegenbaur and Vogt, went to the
shores of the Mediterranean and made sad havoc with my novelties. Then
came occupations consequent on my appointment to the chair I now hold;
and it was only last autumn that I had leisure to take up the subject
again.
However, the plates, which I hope you will see in a few months have,
with two exceptions, been engraved five years.
Pray make my remembrances to Dr. Eckhard. I was sorry not to have seen
him again in London.
Ever, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours,
T.H. Huxley.
Professor Leuckart.
[At this time Sir J. Hooker was writing, as an introduction to his
"Flora of Tasmania," his essay on the "Flora of Australia," published in
1859--a book which owed its form to the influence of Darwin, and in
return lent weighty support to evolutionary theory from the botanical
side. He sent his proofs for Huxley to read.
14 Waverley Place, N.W., April 22, 1859.
My dear Hooker,
I have read your proofs with a great deal of attention and interest. I
was greatly struck with the suggestions in the first page, and the
exposure of the fallacy "that cultivated forms recur to wild types if
left alone" is new to me and seems of vast importance.
The argument brought forward in the note is very striking and as simple
as the egg of Columbus, when one sees it. I have marked one or two
passages which are not quite clear to me...
I have been accused of writing papers composed of nothing but heads of
chapters, and I think you tend the same way. Please take the trouble to
make the two lines I have scored into a paragraph, so that poor devils
who are not quite so well up in the subject as yourself may not have to
rack their brains for an hour to supply all the links of your chain of
argument...
You see that I am in a carping humour, but the matter of the essays
seems to me to be so very valuable that I am jealous of the manner of
it.
I had a long visit from Greene of Cork yesterday. He is very Irish, but
very intelligent and well-informed, and I am in hopes he will do good
service. He is writing a little book on the Protozoa, which (so far as I
have glanced over the proof sheets as yet) seems to show a very
philosophical turn of mind. It is very satisfactory to find the ideas
one has been fighting for beginning to take root.
I do not suppose my own personal contributions to science will ever be
anything very grand, but I shall be well content if I have reason to
believe that I have done something to stir up others.
Ever yours faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
[To the same:--]
April, 1859.
My dear Hooker,
...I pity you--as for the MSS. it is one of those cases for which
penances were originally devised. What do you say to standing on your
head in the garden for one hour per diem for the next week? It would be
a relief...
I suppose you will be at the Phil. Club next Monday. In the meanwhile
don't let all the flesh be worried off your bones (there isn't much as
it is).
Ever yours faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.
14 Waverley Place, July 29, 1859.
My dear Hooker,
I meant to have written to you yesterday, but things put it out of my
head. If there is to be any fund raised at all, I am quite of your mind
that it should be a scientific fund and not a mere naturalists' fund.
Sectarianism in such matters is ridiculous, and besides that, in this
particular case it is bad policy. For the word "Naturalist"
unfortunately includes a far lower order of men than chemist, physicist,
or mathematician. You don't call a man a mathematician because he has
spent his life in getting as far as quadratics; but every fool who can
make bad species and worse genera is a "Naturalist"!--save the mark!
Imagine the chemists petitioning the Crown for a Pension for P-- if he
wanted one! and yet he really is a philosopher compared to poor dear
A--.
"Naturalists" therefore are far more likely to want help than any other
class of scientific men, and they would be greatly damaging their own
interests if they formed an exclusive fund for themselves.
Ever yours faithfully,
T.H. Huxley.