Road when the conversation almost immediately turned upon American racing and race horses, a topic on which I was obliged to confess myself an absolute ignoramus by the side of my interlocutor.
A few parting words. In 1893 I had the pleasure of being constituted one of a committee of five on the award of the Hayden Memorial Medal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia—a medal (and accompanying fund) awarded for meritorious work in the domain of geology and paleontology. The award was made unanimously, and almost without discussion, to Prof. Huxley, and his name thus appears in association with the names of James Hall, Cope, Suess (of Vienna), and Daubrée (of Paris), other recipients and masters in a field with which the labors of Prof. Huxley are not very generally associated. The following characteristic reply, acknowledging the receipt of the award, was addressed to the Academy.
Hodeslea, Stavely Road, Eastbourne, January 4, 1894.
Gentlemen: The Hayden Memorial Medal, with your draft (which will incorporate itself into an ornament for my wife's drawing room), reached me the first of the month, a New-Year's gift of a value quite unexampled in my experience. I am very sensible of the great honor which the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia has conferred upon me—a retired veteran who has much reason to suspect that he has already received quite as much promotion as he has deserved.
But increasing years, if they bring a diminution of variety (I am not sure they do), leave the desire for the esteem of those who have a right to judge us intact, perhaps intensify it; and I beg leave to assure you and your colleagues—fellow-workers of Hayden and of Leidy that the kindly and sympathetic terms of your award have given me very great pleasure.
With all respect, I have the honor to be, gentlemen.
Your obedient servant and colleague,
Thomas Henry Huxley.
It is not for the student to sum up either the quality or the quantity of the labors of his teacher and master, but for those who still doubt and there are some such the justice of the position which has by almost common consent been given to Huxley in the realm of science, it may be recommended as a healthy exercise to carefully read the titles of the hundreds of papers with which this indefatigable writer, for the better part of half a century, has crowded the pages of scientific journals and popular magazines; and after that, with equal care, the inquirer into fame will take an advantageous turn in mastering the papers to which these titles
