Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825–29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist who specialized in comparative anatomy. He has become known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his advocacy of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The stories about his famous 1860 Oxford evolution debate with Samuel Wilberforce were a defining moment in the general acceptance of evolution and in his career, although some historians believe that the surviving story of the debate is a later fabrication. Huxley had been scheduled to leave Oxford the previous day, but after meeting with Robert Chambers, the author of Vestiges, he changed his mind and accepted the invitation to join the debate.
Who was Tom Huxley?
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895), biologist, anthropologist, and philosopher, was born on 4 May 1825 at Ealing, London, the seventh child of George Huxley, schoolmaster, and his wife Rachel.
Early Life
Thomas Henry Huxley was born in Ealing, then a village in Middlesex. He was the second youngest of eight children of George Huxley and Rachel Withers. His parents were Church of England members, but he sympathized with nonconformists. Like some other British scientists of the nineteenth century, such as Alfred Russel Wallace, Huxley was brought up in a literate middle-class family that had fallen on hard times. His father was a mathematics teacher at Great Ealing School until it closed, putting the family into financial difficulties. As a consequence, Thomas left school at the age of 10 after only two years of formal education.
What is Thomas Henry Huxley known for?
Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a leading Victorian zoologist, science popularizer, and education reformer. He was born in Ealing, a small village west of London, in 1825.
Who was Thomas Huxley, and what did he argue?
Dubbing himself Darwin’s bulldog, Huxley is mostly renowned as a popularizer of Darwinian theory and additionally for his crusade against theology. Yet the man was very much a scientist by his credentials, writing some hundreds of monographs.
Why is the Huxley family famous?
Huxley is an English family. Various members of it have made impressive contributions in the fields of science, medicine, and arts and literature. Other notable positions held by them include high-rank posts within the public services of the United Kingdom.
Voyage of the Rattlesnake
At the age of 20, Huxley was still too young to apply for a license to practice at the Royal College of Surgeons, yet he was “deep in debt.” So, at the suggestion of a friend, he applied for an appointment in the Royal Navy. He brought references on character and certificates of the time he spent on his apprenticeship and requirements like dissection and pharmacy. He was interviewed by the Physician General of the Navy, William Burnett, and the College of Surgeons would test his competency.
Finally, Huxley was appointed assistant surgeon (‘surgeon’s mate,’ but in practice marine naturalist) to HMS Rattlesnake, which was shortly to sail on a voyage of discovery and surveying to New Guinea and Australia. The Rattlesnake sailed from England on 3 December 1846, and once it reached the southern hemisphere, Huxley devoted his time to the study of marine invertebrates.
How Was the Later Life of Thomas Henry?
After a lecture at the Royal Institution on 30 April 1852, Huxley indicated that it was still difficult to earn a living as a scientist alone. This was revealed in a letter written on 3 May 1852, where he comments, “Science in England does everything—but PAY. You may earn praise but not pudding”. However, Huxley effectively resigned from the navy by refusing to return to active service, and in July 1854 he became a professor of natural history at the Royal School of Mines and a naturalist to the British Geological Survey in the following year.
In addition, he was Fullerian Professor at the Royal Institution 1855–1858 and 1865–1867; Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons 1863–1869; president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 1869–1870; president of the Quekett Microscopical Club 1878; president of the Royal Society 1883–1885; Inspector of Fisheries 1881–1885; and president of the Marine Biological Association 1884–1890. He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1869
Public duties and awards
From 1870 on, Huxley was to some extent diverted from scientific research by the claims of public duty. He served on eight Royal Commissions from 1862 to 1884. From 1871 to 1880 he was a secretary of the Royal Society, and from 1883 to 1885 he was president. He was president of the Geological Society from 1868 to 1870. In 1870, he was president of the British Association at Liverpool and, in the same year, was elected a member of the newly constituted London School Board. He was president of the Quekett Microscopical Club from 1877 to 1879.
He was the leading person amongst those who reformed the Royal Society, persuaded the government about science, and established scientific education in British schools and universities. He was conferred the highest honors then open to British men of science. The Royal Society, which had elected him as a Fellow when he was 25 (1851), awarded him the Royal Medal the next year (1852), a year before Charles Darwin got the same award.
Vertebrate paleontology
The first half of Huxley’s career as a paleontologist marks a rather anomalous predilection for ‘persistent types,’ in which it seemed that the evolutionary advance that, in his lexicon, marked major new groups of animals and plants was rare or absent in the Phanerozoic. In the same vein, he tended to push the origin of major groups such as birds and mammals back into the Paleozoic era and to claim that no order of plants had ever gone extinct.
Royal and other commissions
Huxley worked on ten royal and other commissions. The Royal Commission is the senior investigative forum in the British constitution. A rough analysis shows that five commissions involved science and scientific education; three involved medicine, and three involved fisheries. Several involve difficult ethical and legal issues. All deal with possible changes to law and/or administrative practice.
Family
In 1855, he married Henrietta Anne Heathorn (1825–1914), an English émigré whom he had met in Sydney, Australia. They kept correspondence until he was able to send for her. They had five daughters and three sons.