etropolitan
School of Science Applied to Mining and the Arts, vacated these on his
appointment to the Chair of Natural History in the University of
Edinburgh, and Sir H. De La Beche, the then Director-General of the
Geological Survey, offered both the posts to Huxley--who in June and
July of that year had given lectures at the school in place of Forbes.
Huxley says himself:

"I refused the former point-blank, and accepted the latter only
provisionally, telling Sir Henry that I did not care for fossils,
and that I should give up natural history as soon as I could get
a physiological post. But I held the office for thirty-one years,
and a large part of my work has been palaeontological."

The salary of the post of Lecturer on Natural History was scanty, but
De La Beche, who evidently recognised Huxley's genius, and was anxious
to have him attached even against his will to palaeontological work,
created a place for him as Naturalist to the Geological Survey, by
which a more suitable income was found for him. His official duties
were at first in the Geological Museum of the Survey, but were
distinguished from those of the special Palaeontologist, Mr. Harvey.
His income was now assured, and for the rest of his life, until
towards its close, when he retired to Eastbourne, he lived the
ordinary life of a professional man of science in London. He was now
able to marry, and on July 21, 1855, he was married to a lady whom he
had met in Sydney in 1847, and whom he had not seen since the
_Rattlesnake_ left Sydney finally in the beginning of May, 1850.

During the years 1856, 1857, and 1858, he held the post of Fullerian
Professor of Physiology in the Royal Institution, choosing as the
title of his first two courses of lectures Physiology and Comparative
Anatomy, as he still cherished the idea of being in the first place a
physiologist.

[Illustration: THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, 1857 Reproduced by permission from
_Natural Science_, vol. vii., No. 42]

"Moreover," writes Professor Michael Foster, "like most other
young professional men of science, he had to eke out his not too
ample income by labours undertaken chiefly for their pecuniary
reward. He acted as examiner, conducting for instance, during the
years 1856 to 1863, and again 1865 to 1870, the examinations in
physiology and comparative anatomy at the University of London,
making even an examination paper feel the infl