Thomas Henry Huxley
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Thomas Henry Huxley
Anthropology 101
9:30 a.m. MW
Thomas Henry Huxley was born May 4, 1825 in Ealing England. Although he was the son of a schoolmaster, Huxley never had a real education as a child. He did however read plenty of books and started studying medicine at a young age. He later entered Charing Cross Hospital medical school, taking his degree in 1845 (Huxley 1992).
Huxley was made assistant surgeon aboard the H.M.S. Rattlesnake after passing the Royale College of Surgeons exam in 1846 (Huxley 1992). He spent four years on this scientific exploration of the southern seas around Australia, during which he did extensive studies of local marine life, which were published with great acclaim, these as well as his detailed investigations into comparative anatomy, paleontology, and evolution made his reputation as one of Englands foremost scientist and controversialist.
Thomas Huxley met Charles Darwin in 1851, after Darwins publication of The Origins of Species, which he was greatly impressed by. Huxley was one of the first adherents to Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection, and did more than anyone else to advance its acceptance among scientists and the public alike. As is evident from the letter quoted below written by Huxley to Darwin in 1859,
I finished your book yesterday. . . Since I read Von Baers Essays nine years ago
no work on Natural History Science I have met with has made so great an
impression on me & I do most heartily thank you for the great store of new views
you have given me. . .
As for your doctrines I am prepared to go to the Stake if requisite. . .
I trust you will not allow yourself to be in any way disgusted or annoyed by the
considerable abuse & misrepresentation which unless I greatly mistake is in store
for you. . . And as to the curs which will bark and yelp — you must recollect that
some of your friends at any rate are endowed with an amount of combativeness
which (though you have often & justly rebuked it) may stand you in good stead —
I am sharpening up my claws and beak in readiness (Di Gregorio 1984:143).
Because of his passionate defense of Darwins theory, Huxley became known as “Darwins Bulldog”.
However Huxley did not believe all of Darwins conclusions, Huxley was un persuaded by Darwins arguments explaining away the missing fossils. Huxley believed in Saltation, a drastic change in a species. Saltation was, for Huxley, a deduction from naturalism–“a logical development,” he said, “of Uniformitarianism” and provided, at least for a time, the only alternative to creation. “Saltation allowed Huxley to explain the gaps in the fossil record, accept evolution, and, most importantly, maintain