THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY ***

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[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, a...

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