Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/557

Rh spell he cast over it, and to the reading public he is rather better known as the daring philosopher and metaphysician than by his biological discoveries. As an anthropologist and zoologist, he is appreciated by that small inner circle of scientific workers whose opinion alone carries any weight on these subjects; to the world at large, whose verdict is not worth too much, he is the successful foe of shams and quackeries.

Among the most interesting points in these interesting volumes are Huxley's opinions of other zoologists. He soon found out on board the 'Rattlesnake' that Macgillivray was not the "ignoramus in natural history" he had been told, and was at any rate "a very good ornithologist," and a zealous collector; William Macleay made a good impression, and was described in 1848 as "the celebrated propounder of the Quinary system." Owen "is an able man, but to my mind not so great as he thinks himself. He can only work in the concrete from bone to bone; in abstract reasoning he becomes lost—witness 'Parthenogenesis.'" The reference to the late Dr. Gray is delightful. "The dog-fox's cæcum is so different from the vixen's that Gray would have made distinct genera of them." But in a more judicial phraseology is the well-balanced verdict on his old friend Darwin: "I am not likely to take a low view of Darwin's position in the history of science, but I am disposed to think that Buffon and Lamarck would run him hard in both genius and fertility. In breadth of view and in extent of knowledge these two men were giants, though we are apt to forget their services. Von Bär was another man of the same stamp; Cuvier, in a somewhat lower rank, another; and J. Müller another."

This biography almost constitutes an abstract of the intellectual progress made during a recent fifty years, in which zoology plays a prominent part. Huxley had considerable sympathy with much that he severely criticised, and his attacks seemed often more severe because he kept in touch with the progress of the opinions he opposed. To the superficial he was a declared enemy, and they could not realise that far below the surface there may be much community of thought. His published letters now give a clue to this enigma.

And now we come to the most important consideration, the relation of Huxley the evolutionist, to Darwinism. In future