Who was Thomas Henry Huxley?
Biologist, anatomist and evolutionist, often
known as Darwin's Bulldog, a title he used
himself. First to coin the word Agnostic. His grandson was the writer
Aldous Huxley.
Date and Place of Birth:
4th May 1825, Ealing, Middlesex, England.
Family Background:
Seventh of eight children of a mathematics master
at Ealing School, George Huxley and Rachel (nee) Withers. The family
fell on hard times when the school closed down.
Education:
Ealing School for two years until the age of
ten. Taught between the ages of 8 and 12 at Charing Cross Medical
School. Huxley was largely self taught and became one of the great
autodidacts of the century.
Chronology/Biography of Thomas Henry Huxley:
1838: Huxley was
apprenticed to various medical practitioners starting with his brother
in law John Cooke who lived in Coventry. He then moved on to study
with Thomas Chandler in Rotherhithe, a very poor district of London.
Chandler was well known for his experiments using mesmerism.
1841: He was apprenticed
next to another brother in law John Salt and he began to study at
Sydenham College near Un iveristy College Hospital. Here he had
a thorough grounding in anatomy. He also started on a programme
of reading so that he could be self taught.
1842: Won a Silver
Medal in the Apothecaries Competition and was admitted to study
at Charing Cross Hospital after obtaining a scholarship. He was
taught by Thomas Wharton Jones a professor of Surgery at University
College. Prof Jones had been an assistant to RObert Know in Edinburgh
who had bought cadavers from the notorious grave robbers Burke and
Hare.
1845: Professor Jones
encouraged Huxley to publish his first scientific papers which showed
the existence of another layer in the inner sheath of hairs which
is now known as Huxley's layer.
1845: Huxley passes
his first medicine examinations at the University of London and
wins the Gold Medal for anatomy and physiology. He failed to get
his degree however as he never sat for his secondary examinations.
Nevertheless his certificates so far qualified him for acceptance
by the Royal Navy. At twenty he was too young to receive a licence
to practice medicine from the Royal College of Surgeons and his
friend suggested the Navy and he was interviewed by Sir William
Burnett, the Physician General of the Navy.
1846: Huxley was
appointed as an Assistant Surgeon to HMS Rattlesnake which was about
to set sail for New Guinea and Australia doing scientific work.
Huxley devoted himself to the study of marine invertebrates on the
voyage.
1849: He was particularly
good at drawing and he made illustrations for his paper "on
the ANatomy and the Affinities of the Family Medusae" which
was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the ROyal Society
of London. In the article Huxley made up a new class called the
Hydroza which he formed from the Hydroids and the Sertularian Polyps.
1850: Elected as
a Fellow of the Royal Society.
1851: Thomas Henry
Huxley elected to the Council of the Royal Society. He met John
Tyndall and and Joseph Dalton Hooker who were to become lifelong
friends.
1852: Won the Royal
Society Medal.
1854: Resigned from
the Navy as he refused to return to active service and became Professor
of Natural History at the Royal School of Mines.
1854: Appointed naturalist
to the Geological Survey and Fullerian Professor at the Royal Institution
until 1858
1858: Lyell and Hooker
presented a lecture to the Linnean Society on Wallace, natural selection
and Darwin's ideas. Huxley's now famous response to the idea of
natural selection was "How extremely stupid not to have thought
of that!"
1859: He read the
Origin of Species which had just been published and warned Charles
Darwin that it might meet with some controversy with the anti-evolutionists.
He said that he would fight himself against the creationists. From
that point on he dedicated himself to defending "Darwinism"
which was an entire scientific outlook and not just the work of
one man. He received a grant from the Royal Society for the printing
of graphical plates and summarised his own work in "The Ocenanic
Hydroza" which was published by the Ray Society.
1860: Thomas Henry
Huxley wrote an article in the Times newspaper supporting the ideas
in the "Origin of Species" and backed this up with several
others in different scientific journals and a famous lecture at
the Oxford University Museum in June where he defended the theory
against Samuel Wilberforce and the Bishop of Oxford and Robert FitzRoy,
the captain of HMS Beagle. Wilberforce was coached by Richard Owen
whom Huxley had previously debated the idea that Humans were related
to the apes. Despite the fact that Huxley was slow to accept Darwin's
Gradualism he publically supported him to the hilt. Wilberforce's
famous jest to Huxley as to whether Huxley was descended from an
ape on his mother's side or his father's side backfired. Huxley
replied that he would rather be descended from an ape than a man
such as Wilberforce who attempted to suppress debate. Huxley and
Wilberforce were later to work together on the Metropolitan Board
of Education but Owen never forgave him.
1862: Huxley sits
on the first of eight Royal commisions
1863: He is appointed
Hunterian Professor to the Royal College of Surgeons to 1869.
1865–67: He
becomes Fullerian Professor at the Royal Institution.
1868: Appointed President
of the Geological Society.
1869–1870:
Serves as President of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science.
1870: Becomes President
of the British Association at Liverpool and elected a member of
the newly constituted London School Board.
1871: Famous caricature
of Huxley by Carlo Pellegrini printed in "Vanity Fair"
magazine. Becomes Secretary of the Royal Society.
1873: Huxley along
with Hooker and Tyndall from the Oxford debate are made Knights
of the Order of the North Star by the King of Sweden.
1876: Thomas Henry
Huxley awarded the Wollaston Medal by the Geological Society.
1881–85: Becomes
Inspector of Fisheries.
1883–85: Serves
as President of the Royal Society.
1884: Starts his
depressive illness.
1885: Retires from
the chair of natural history at the Royal School of Mines after
31 years. He also resigned the Presidency of the Royal Society,
the Inspectorship of Fisheries and took six month's leave.
1888: Awarded the
Copley Medal.
1890: Moved from
London to Eastbourne where he edited the nine volumes of his Collected
Essays. Awarded the Linnean Medal by the Linnean Society.
1892: Thomas Henry
Huxley appointed as a Privy Councillor and given a pension by the
state which was something Darwin never achieved.
1894: Hears of discovery
in Java of the remains of Pithecanthropus erectus by the scientist
Eugene Dubois.This is now known as Homo Erectus. Awarded the Darwin
Medal.
Written Works:
- 1849:
"On the anatomy and the affinities of the family of Medusae"
- 1863:
"Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature"
- 1890: "Collected
Essays".
Marriage:
1855: Henrietta Anne Heathorn.
Date and Place of Death:
29th June 1895, Eastbourne, Sussex, England
of a heart attack after contracting influenza and pneumonia.
Age at Death:
70.
Site of Grave:
Finchley Cemetery, Finchley, London.
