1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:13,960 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 3 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 1: Frye and I'm prayse A V. 4 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:17,280 Speaker 2: Wilson. This is an. 5 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: Episode that we are recording while we are on a 6 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:22,960 Speaker 1: visit to the Bahamas. We are in the studio at 7 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: Baha Mar So I wanted to do something that related 8 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:30,639 Speaker 1: to marine biology. It is a little related to marine biology. 9 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,240 Speaker 1: There is a lot more to the story of Thomas 10 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:37,160 Speaker 1: Henry Huxley than the embarrassing scientific blunder in marine biology 11 00:00:37,159 --> 00:00:40,000 Speaker 1: that he made, although that is one of the most 12 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: famous events of his life, and he actually, in my opinion, 13 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:46,920 Speaker 1: offers up a pretty good example of having a good 14 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:50,519 Speaker 1: attitude about learning in public, about making a gaff and 15 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: then acknowledging errors and learning from them. He also is 16 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:58,720 Speaker 1: sort of famously known by his nickname Darwin's Bulldog for 17 00:00:58,800 --> 00:01:02,120 Speaker 1: his very vocal support part of Darwin's work, and he 18 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:06,399 Speaker 1: also just generally wanted to promote science and education, particularly 19 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:09,520 Speaker 1: people that normally did not have access to those things. 20 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 1: He wrote late in his life quote, it is with 21 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:16,480 Speaker 1: this intent that I have subordinated any reasonable or unreasonable 22 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:20,440 Speaker 1: ambition for scientific fame, which I may have permitted myself 23 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:24,520 Speaker 1: to entertain, to other ends, to the popularization of science, 24 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 1: to the development and organization of scientific education, to the 25 00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:33,000 Speaker 1: endless series of battles and skirmishes over evolution, and to 26 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:38,800 Speaker 1: untiring opposition to that ecclesiastical spirit, that clericalism, which in England, 27 00:01:38,959 --> 00:01:42,400 Speaker 1: as everywhere else, and to whatever denomination it may belong, 28 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 1: is the deadly enemy of science. So he's pretty interesting. 29 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: Heads up, there is so much documentation written about and 30 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:54,880 Speaker 1: by Thomas Huxley that there's no way to cover it all. 31 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: So if you are a Thomas Huxley scholar, you may 32 00:01:57,320 --> 00:01:58,760 Speaker 1: be like you're leaving some stuff out. 33 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 2: There's no way not to just know that there is. 34 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:07,640 Speaker 1: Also plenty that is edited out of his story here, 35 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:10,120 Speaker 1: But also that means there is plenty that is readily 36 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: available and easy to access. If you look at our 37 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: show notes for today's episode, you will find plenty of 38 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:19,120 Speaker 1: things that he wrote and people wrote about him. Also, 39 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:20,760 Speaker 1: we just have to say, right out of the gate, 40 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: this man had spectacular sideburns. Thomas Henry Huxley was born 41 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: May fourth, eighteen twenty five and ealing England today. 42 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:31,880 Speaker 2: That is part of London. 43 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:34,480 Speaker 1: At the time, it was a village outside of London, 44 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:37,720 Speaker 1: but the city eventually just absorbed it. It became part 45 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:41,200 Speaker 1: of the greater city through urban expansion. His father, George, 46 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:44,639 Speaker 1: was a schoolmaster who ran a small but respected school 47 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:48,800 Speaker 1: for boys. George and his wife Rachel, had seven children, 48 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:52,359 Speaker 1: and Thomas was the youngest. Only six of those children 49 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:55,919 Speaker 1: lived past infancy, though Thomas was born in their home, 50 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 1: which was an apartment above a butcher's shop, and he 51 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:03,480 Speaker 1: wrote a humorous story about his early childhood later in 52 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:07,040 Speaker 1: his life, saying quote, I am not aware that any 53 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: portence preceded my arrival in this world, But in my 54 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,760 Speaker 1: childhood I remember hearing a traditional account of the manner 55 00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:16,680 Speaker 1: in which I lost the chance of an endowment of 56 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 1: great practical value. The windows of my mother's room were 57 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:24,280 Speaker 1: open in consequence of the unusual warmth of the weather. 58 00:03:24,919 --> 00:03:28,680 Speaker 1: For the same reason, probably a neighboring beehive had swarmed, 59 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 1: and the new colony, pitching on the windowsill, was making 60 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 1: its way into the room when the horrified nurse shut 61 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,600 Speaker 1: down the sash. If that well meaning woman had only 62 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: abstained from her ill timed interference, the swarm might have 63 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:47,240 Speaker 1: settled on my lips, and I should have been endowed 64 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: with that molefluous eloquence, which in this country leads far 65 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: more surely than worth capacity or honest work, to the 66 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: highest places in church and state. But the opportunity was lost, 67 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 1: and I have been obliged to content myself through life 68 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:05,960 Speaker 1: with saying what I mean in the plainest of plain 69 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: language than which I suppose there is no habit more 70 00:04:09,840 --> 00:04:14,640 Speaker 1: ruinous to a man's prospects of advancement. Beyond that, he 71 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:16,800 Speaker 1: wrote quote, I have next to nothing to say about 72 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:19,480 Speaker 1: my childhood. I love him, and I know that was 73 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: a long story to read, but I wanted to include 74 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:23,720 Speaker 1: it because it really sets you up for what they're 75 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:27,400 Speaker 1: going to get from Thomas Huxley. He's a little of 76 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:32,880 Speaker 1: self deprecating all the time, but he's also very simultaneously 77 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 1: able to kind of stick a little jab in at 78 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:39,320 Speaker 1: what he thinks is the pompous nature of a lot 79 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:44,040 Speaker 1: of the institutions of English society. And also, I don't 80 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:45,920 Speaker 1: know why getting stung by bees would have made him 81 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:49,680 Speaker 1: more eloquent, but I think it was that they would alight, oh, 82 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:52,599 Speaker 1: they would alight onto his mouth and give him the 83 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:55,039 Speaker 1: gift of speech, not that they would sting him, they 84 00:04:55,080 --> 00:05:00,880 Speaker 1: would make him buzz and buzz. Although Thomas grew up 85 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:04,039 Speaker 1: in an educator's household, he only had two years of 86 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:08,440 Speaker 1: formal schooling. He attended his father's school starting at age eight, 87 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:11,440 Speaker 1: but the school closed in eighteen thirty seven and that 88 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:14,719 Speaker 1: was the end of that. George moved out of education 89 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,160 Speaker 1: and he moved into a career in banking. The family 90 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:21,400 Speaker 1: did continue to struggle financially, and from the age of 91 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:25,840 Speaker 1: ten on, Thomas's education was entirely self directed. It wasn't 92 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:27,839 Speaker 1: like they could afford to send him to a school. 93 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:32,679 Speaker 1: His father had amassed a significant library though, through his teaching, 94 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:35,279 Speaker 1: so Thomas just decided he would sort of work his 95 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:38,600 Speaker 1: way through that. He not only read books in English, 96 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: but he also taught himself French and German, so he 97 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: could read books written in those languages as well, including 98 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 1: the works of Descartes and Guerta. Although his father had 99 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:51,719 Speaker 1: been a teacher, it was Rachel, his mother, who he 100 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:55,000 Speaker 1: really credited with giving him the gift of natural intelligence. 101 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:57,800 Speaker 1: He wrote of her quote, with no more education than 102 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:00,479 Speaker 1: other women of the middle class in her day, she 103 00:06:00,560 --> 00:06:05,279 Speaker 1: had an excellent mental capacity. Her most distinguishing characteristic, however, 104 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:09,320 Speaker 1: was rapidity of thought. If one ventured to suggest she 105 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:12,360 Speaker 1: had not taken much time to arrive at any conclusion, 106 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:16,240 Speaker 1: she would say, I cannot help it. Things flash across me. 107 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:20,160 Speaker 1: That peculiarity has been passed on to me in full strength. 108 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:23,680 Speaker 1: It has often stood me in good stead, it has 109 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:28,400 Speaker 1: sometimes played me sad tricks, and it has always been 110 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:31,240 Speaker 1: a danger. But after all, if my time were to 111 00:06:31,279 --> 00:06:34,320 Speaker 1: come over again, there is nothing I would less willingly 112 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:39,080 Speaker 1: part with than my inheritance of mother. Wit Zelle Huxley 113 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:41,840 Speaker 1: was raised in an Anglican family. By the time he 114 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:45,600 Speaker 1: was a teenager, he was starting to question religion, and 115 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: is often described as having aligned with the dissenters of 116 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:52,080 Speaker 1: nineteenth century England, who rebelled against the dogma of the 117 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:56,239 Speaker 1: Church of England and sought their own path. Throughout his life, 118 00:06:56,640 --> 00:07:00,159 Speaker 1: Huxley moved farther and farther away from religion as he 119 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,960 Speaker 1: examined its place in the human social structure and viewed 120 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:08,320 Speaker 1: it from a progressively more scientific lens. When he was thirteen, 121 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:12,640 Speaker 1: Huxley was apprenticed to John Charles Cook, a doctor who 122 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:17,840 Speaker 1: was also his sister Ellen's husband. Encyclopedia Britannica described Cook 123 00:07:17,880 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 1: as a medical materialist, meaning someone who believes that all maladies, 124 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:27,560 Speaker 1: including psychological ones, traced back to a physical problem, but 125 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,960 Speaker 1: Holly didn't find much about Cook anywhere to really verify that. 126 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:36,120 Speaker 1: Huxley didn't stay with Cook for long, though, and eventually 127 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:39,120 Speaker 1: moved on to a different apprenticeship in London with a 128 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:43,320 Speaker 1: doctor who served the city's poor. But Huxley acknowledged that 129 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:47,160 Speaker 1: medicine in terms of actually treating patients had never been 130 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: a passion for him. He was really just interested in 131 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:55,160 Speaker 1: physiology and was trying to find a way out of poverty. Yeah, 132 00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:59,400 Speaker 1: it's said that he was really very struck by the 133 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:03,360 Speaker 1: horrible soircumstances that London's poor were living in, and that 134 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:07,360 Speaker 1: part of his apprenticeship really impacted the way he thought 135 00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:10,320 Speaker 1: about education for the rest of his life and what. 136 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:11,560 Speaker 2: He could do to help people. 137 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:16,080 Speaker 1: Huxley described once going to an autopsy with his friends 138 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:19,640 Speaker 1: as a boy drawn near because he was interested in physiology, 139 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:25,240 Speaker 1: and he described what he called dissection poisoning, although in 140 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: this account where he talks about it, he says that 141 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: he didn't cut himself in any way like there was 142 00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:34,600 Speaker 1: no place for anything kind of dangerous to enter his 143 00:08:34,720 --> 00:08:38,840 Speaker 1: skin or his blood stream. But even so he didn't 144 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:41,760 Speaker 1: get better. He continued to get sick, and he describes 145 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:44,600 Speaker 1: having to go to the country to a farm to 146 00:08:44,640 --> 00:08:48,360 Speaker 1: get better, stating quote, I soon recovered, but for years 147 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:52,439 Speaker 1: I suffered from occasional paroxysms of internal pain. And from 148 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:57,400 Speaker 1: that time my constant friend hypochondriacal dyspepsia commenced his half 149 00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:01,839 Speaker 1: century of co tendancy of my flesh Lee Tabernacle. At 150 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:05,679 Speaker 1: the age of seventeen, Huxley had acquired enough knowledge and 151 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:07,960 Speaker 1: the ability to apply it that he was given a 152 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:12,079 Speaker 1: scholarship to study medicine. This was through the charing Cross 153 00:09:12,160 --> 00:09:16,960 Speaker 1: Hospital at London University, and Huxley met this opportunity with enthusiasm. 154 00:09:17,559 --> 00:09:20,240 Speaker 1: He won a gold medal for his achievement in anatomy 155 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:24,960 Speaker 1: and physiology from the school. Just after Huxley's graduation from 156 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:28,360 Speaker 1: London University in eighteen forty five, he made his first 157 00:09:28,440 --> 00:09:32,320 Speaker 1: mark on the scientific world through his observations of hair 158 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:36,760 Speaker 1: follicles under a microscope. He identified a layer between the 159 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:40,480 Speaker 1: outer layer and the interior cuticle that gives hair its 160 00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:44,560 Speaker 1: strength by connecting keratin filaments, and that is now known 161 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:49,199 Speaker 1: as Huxley's Layer. We will talk about Huxley's next somewhat 162 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:52,600 Speaker 1: surprising career move after we pause for a sponsor break. 163 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:06,760 Speaker 1: In eighteen forty six, Thomas Huxley joined the Royal Navy. 164 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:09,920 Speaker 1: This was, by his account, something one of his friends 165 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:14,040 Speaker 1: encouraged him to do so. He had graduated from medical school, 166 00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 1: but he was still too young to become a member 167 00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: of the College of Surgeons, and he needed some kind 168 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:22,880 Speaker 1: of income, so his friends suggested that he write to 169 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:25,680 Speaker 1: the Director General for the Medical Service of the Navy, 170 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:29,400 Speaker 1: Sir William Burnett. And Huxley actually thought this was way 171 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:32,040 Speaker 1: too forward, but he was desperate enough that he did 172 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:36,000 Speaker 1: it anyway, and to his surprise, Burnett asked him to meet, 173 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:39,560 Speaker 1: and after a brief interview, Huxley was in the Navy 174 00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:42,800 Speaker 1: because of his medical background. He was assigned first to 175 00:10:42,800 --> 00:10:46,400 Speaker 1: Haslar Hospital and then several months later to the HMS 176 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:51,120 Speaker 1: Rattlesnake as the ship's assistant surgeon. The Rattlesnake had orders 177 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:54,000 Speaker 1: to embark on a multi year mission to the South Pacific. 178 00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:59,079 Speaker 1: Huxley describes this time on this journey as exceptionally rough, 179 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:01,520 Speaker 1: but he also he said it was really good for him, 180 00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:04,120 Speaker 1: stating quote, it was good for me to live under 181 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:07,479 Speaker 1: sharp discipline, to be down on the realities of existence 182 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:11,360 Speaker 1: by living on bare necessities, to find out how extremely 183 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:14,000 Speaker 1: well worth living life seemed to be when one woke 184 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:17,000 Speaker 1: up from a night's rest on a soft plank, with 185 00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:20,520 Speaker 1: the sky for canopy and cocoa, and weevily biscuit the 186 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:24,760 Speaker 1: soul prospect for breakfast, and more especially to learn to 187 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:27,080 Speaker 1: work for the sake of what I got for myself 188 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:29,360 Speaker 1: out of it, even if it all went to the 189 00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:33,040 Speaker 1: bottom and I along with it. The Rattlesnake was on 190 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:36,840 Speaker 1: a surveying mission, and in addition to fulfilling his daily 191 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:40,760 Speaker 1: work duties, Huxley took on a side project. He studied 192 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:45,040 Speaker 1: sea anemones and jellyfish throughout the voyage, and he compiled 193 00:11:45,040 --> 00:11:47,200 Speaker 1: his findings into a paper that he sent to the 194 00:11:47,240 --> 00:11:49,280 Speaker 1: Royal Society in eighteen forty nine. 195 00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:51,120 Speaker 2: That paper was titled on. 196 00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:55,200 Speaker 1: The Anatomy and the Affinities of the Family of the Medusa, 197 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:59,440 Speaker 1: but he never heard anything back from the Society. Upon 198 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:02,160 Speaker 1: his return to London in eighteen fifty he was very 199 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:05,400 Speaker 1: surprised to learn that his paper had been received, published 200 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:09,920 Speaker 1: and lauded by the scientific community. Huxley also came home 201 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:13,000 Speaker 1: an engaged man. While he was on that journey, he 202 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:16,000 Speaker 1: met a young woman while the ship was docked in Sydney, Australia. 203 00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:20,000 Speaker 1: Her name was Henrietta Ann Heathorne. The two of them 204 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:22,560 Speaker 1: fell in love and they agreed to be married. But 205 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:25,360 Speaker 1: when the ship left, it wasn't like Henrietta could just 206 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:28,800 Speaker 1: go with them, so she agreed to wait for Thomas 207 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:31,680 Speaker 1: in Sydney until the time came that they could be together. 208 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:36,439 Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty one, because of his paper on anemones 209 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:40,240 Speaker 1: and other critters, Huxley became a Fellow of the Royal Society. 210 00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:43,040 Speaker 1: He continued his naval career for a while, but he 211 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:47,000 Speaker 1: was also always working on his own research projects. A 212 00:12:47,080 --> 00:12:49,680 Speaker 1: year after he became a fellow, he submitted a paper 213 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,679 Speaker 1: on invertebrate animals, and he won a gold medal for it. 214 00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:56,959 Speaker 1: Huxley had a couple of factors leading him away from 215 00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:00,880 Speaker 1: his military career in the early eighteen fifties. For one, 216 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:04,120 Speaker 1: he was feeling ready to transition into research being his 217 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:08,240 Speaker 1: full time occupation. For another, there were arguments between the 218 00:13:08,320 --> 00:13:12,240 Speaker 1: Admiralty and the scientific community about whether the Navy should 219 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:15,200 Speaker 1: pay for some of the printing costs of Huxley's work. 220 00:13:16,000 --> 00:13:17,640 Speaker 2: That was not out of the blue. 221 00:13:17,679 --> 00:13:20,880 Speaker 1: The military had made promises that they would support and 222 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:25,440 Speaker 1: encourage officers doing scientific work, but after several years of 223 00:13:25,520 --> 00:13:29,120 Speaker 1: back and forth, the Navy, according to Huxley quote cut 224 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:32,000 Speaker 1: short the discussion by ordering me to join a ship, 225 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:35,600 Speaker 1: which thing I declined to do. So he was on 226 00:13:35,679 --> 00:13:38,360 Speaker 1: his own in London without a job, and if he 227 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:40,760 Speaker 1: had been born into a wealthy family, this is the 228 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:42,439 Speaker 1: point where he could have just set up his own 229 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:45,720 Speaker 1: lab and dedicated himself to research while living off the 230 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:48,280 Speaker 1: family fortune. A lot of people we've talked about on 231 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: the show have done just that, but Huxley needed a job, 232 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:54,120 Speaker 1: and leaving the stability of the Navy was actually a 233 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:58,000 Speaker 1: pretty risky move. But he didn't only want to fund 234 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:01,559 Speaker 1: his research. He also wanted to make enough money that 235 00:14:01,679 --> 00:14:04,680 Speaker 1: he could send for Henrietta and bring her to London 236 00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:05,840 Speaker 1: so that they could start. 237 00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:06,400 Speaker 2: A life together. 238 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:10,120 Speaker 1: Huxley had already made a name for himself, and because 239 00:14:10,160 --> 00:14:14,199 Speaker 1: of that name, he landed two jobs. One was as 240 00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:18,120 Speaker 1: a curator at the Museum of practical geography. The other 241 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:21,640 Speaker 1: was a professor position at the Royal School of Mines, 242 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:26,840 Speaker 1: where he was to teach paleontology and natural history. This 243 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:29,800 Speaker 1: was not a job he actually wanted because he was 244 00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:34,160 Speaker 1: not an expert at paleontology, so he accepted the job provisionally. 245 00:14:34,880 --> 00:14:37,520 Speaker 1: He wrote that he told his new employer quote that 246 00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:40,320 Speaker 1: I did not care for fossils, and that I should 247 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:42,840 Speaker 1: give up natural history as soon as I could get 248 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:46,080 Speaker 1: a physiological post. But I held the office for thirty 249 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 1: one years, and a large part of my work has 250 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:53,880 Speaker 1: been paleontological. Neither of Huxley's new positions was especially high paying, 251 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:56,960 Speaker 1: but the two combined meant that he could finally send 252 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 1: for Henrietta, and they got married in eighteen fifty five. Yeah, 253 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:04,080 Speaker 1: they were, by all accounts, very very happy together. In 254 00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:08,640 Speaker 1: his thirties, Huxley committed himself fully to promoting the new 255 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:12,480 Speaker 1: ideas arising in science, and this often meant that he 256 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,720 Speaker 1: was at odds with the establishment, because so much of 257 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:19,320 Speaker 1: thought and culture in Britain, Europe and the US was 258 00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:22,520 Speaker 1: built around biblical ideology, and a lot of the emerging 259 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:26,000 Speaker 1: science was very counter to that. This was a period 260 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:29,120 Speaker 1: of time when scientists were really focusing on the origin 261 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:32,560 Speaker 1: of humans, which even today gets people riled up sometimes, 262 00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:35,520 Speaker 1: so you can imagine how contentious it could be for 263 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:39,960 Speaker 1: an idea like evolution to be introduced in nineteenth century England. 264 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 1: But though Huxley was eager to understand where human life began, 265 00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:48,640 Speaker 1: that didn't mean that he supported all scientific ideas that 266 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 1: explored that topic. In eighteen oh nine, French naturalist Jean 267 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:58,720 Speaker 1: Baptiste Lamarque had published a book titled Philosophy Zoologice. That 268 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:02,160 Speaker 1: book built on work that Lamarck had been doing for years, 269 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:05,720 Speaker 1: and it laid out the origin of life as having 270 00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:09,320 Speaker 1: been the result of spontaneous generation with regards to the 271 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:13,160 Speaker 1: simplest forms of life, and then suggested that two drivers 272 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:16,720 Speaker 1: led to more complex forms of life. One was what 273 00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:20,000 Speaker 1: he called the power of life, which he described as 274 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:24,480 Speaker 1: a natural progression toward increased complexity. The other was an 275 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:28,560 Speaker 1: environmental effect. The needs of an organism's environment would cause 276 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:33,440 Speaker 1: them to adopt various behaviors for survival, and those behaviors 277 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:37,000 Speaker 1: would change their bodies, and those changes would be inherited 278 00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:40,400 Speaker 1: by their offspring. The classic example that he used for 279 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:43,440 Speaker 1: this was giraffes. He made the case that as they 280 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:46,920 Speaker 1: stretched to reach high leaves in trees for food, their 281 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:52,120 Speaker 1: necks elongated, and that that elongation made it into subsequent generations. 282 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:56,200 Speaker 1: Of course that was incorrect, but it was the beginning 283 00:16:56,280 --> 00:17:02,520 Speaker 1: of scientific discourse about evolution, and writing several decades later 284 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,800 Speaker 1: about it, thought that Lamark had some really interesting ideas, 285 00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:08,920 Speaker 1: but that he was not correct in his assessment, and 286 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:11,200 Speaker 1: that he had made some leaps that were not really 287 00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:15,160 Speaker 1: supported by any kind of scientific evidence. He wrote, quote 288 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:19,200 Speaker 1: Lamarck sagacious, as many of his views were mingled them 289 00:17:19,240 --> 00:17:22,240 Speaker 1: with so much that was crude and even absurd, as 290 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:25,760 Speaker 1: to neutralize the benefit which his originality might have affected 291 00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:29,719 Speaker 1: had he been a more sober and cautious thinker. In 292 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:34,320 Speaker 1: eighteen forty four, Robert Chambers published a book titled Vestiges 293 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:38,480 Speaker 1: of the Natural History of Creation. No one knew that 294 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:41,879 Speaker 1: it was Chambers who wrote it. The book was published anonymously, 295 00:17:42,119 --> 00:17:45,360 Speaker 1: and Chambers, who was a Scottish publisher, was not revealed 296 00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:48,600 Speaker 1: to be the author until forty years later. He had 297 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:51,120 Speaker 1: withheld his name because he knew it would be controversial 298 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:54,960 Speaker 1: and he didn't want the potential fearer to destroy his livelihood. 299 00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:58,480 Speaker 1: He was really correct to be worried about this. This 300 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:00,960 Speaker 1: was not a case where he was scientists who had 301 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:04,399 Speaker 1: discovered something so new that it would break people's understanding 302 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:07,359 Speaker 1: of the world. He was parroting things that a bunch 303 00:18:07,359 --> 00:18:10,640 Speaker 1: of other people had claimed and kind of combining them 304 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:14,040 Speaker 1: into one scientific history of the world from the beginning 305 00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:15,560 Speaker 1: to the point where humans appeared. 306 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:18,040 Speaker 2: And the work repeated a lot. 307 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:21,280 Speaker 1: Of things that the scientific community had already dismissed as 308 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:23,800 Speaker 1: incorrect and in some cases even silly. 309 00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:25,679 Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like he did no vetting. 310 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:29,040 Speaker 1: He read the internet and said I did my research, 311 00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:31,080 Speaker 1: and he wrote one big paper about it, and then 312 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:33,920 Speaker 1: everyone was like, oh my dude, that's not it. 313 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:34,919 Speaker 2: No, nope. 314 00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:39,639 Speaker 1: Uh. Huxley's writing about this work is frequently described as scathing. 315 00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:43,199 Speaker 1: Scathing is the word almost everyone uses, and that is 316 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:46,960 Speaker 1: really pretty accurate. He wrote, quote, we grudged no man 317 00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:50,240 Speaker 1: either the glory or the prophet to be obtained from Charlotteanery. 318 00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:52,919 Speaker 1: And we can hardly expect that those who are so 319 00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:56,200 Speaker 1: ignorant of science as to be misled by the vestiges 320 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:58,800 Speaker 1: will read what we have to say upon the subject. 321 00:18:59,320 --> 00:19:02,960 Speaker 1: But a book like a weed acquire an importance by 322 00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:06,000 Speaker 1: neglect which it could have attained in no other mode. 323 00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:10,480 Speaker 1: And therefore it becomes our somewhat unpleasant duty to devote 324 00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:13,119 Speaker 1: a few of our pages to an examination of some 325 00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:16,480 Speaker 1: of the leading points of this once attractive and still 326 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:20,720 Speaker 1: notorious work of fiction. Indeed, we feel the more called 327 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:24,399 Speaker 1: upon to undertake this criticism at present, since, as we 328 00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:28,520 Speaker 1: shall see, the vestigiarian has bolstered up his case by 329 00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:32,520 Speaker 1: the use of names and authorities which were justifiable might 330 00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:35,959 Speaker 1: give a certain value to his statements. But then, in 331 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,040 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty nine, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, 332 00:19:40,119 --> 00:19:43,760 Speaker 1: which changed science forever, and it became a pivotal work 333 00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:48,080 Speaker 1: in Huxley's life and career. Unlike the Lamarck and Chambers 334 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:53,000 Speaker 1: writing on evolution, Darwin's work captured Huxley's attention, and that 335 00:19:53,119 --> 00:19:56,480 Speaker 1: started before it was ever published. Darwin had brought the 336 00:19:56,520 --> 00:19:59,439 Speaker 1: work to Huxley for review before it went to print, 337 00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:02,800 Speaker 1: and Huxley had made an in depth study of the manuscript. 338 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:06,840 Speaker 1: Andy felt that the reasoning and science of natural selection 339 00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:11,440 Speaker 1: as outlined in Darwin's work really stood up the reason 340 00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:14,720 Speaker 1: why Huxley got the nickname of Darwin's bulldog was because 341 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,960 Speaker 1: he was comfortable embracing the conflict around this controversial writing 342 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:20,800 Speaker 1: and just towing up with the detractors. 343 00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:23,680 Speaker 2: But Darwin was not Yeah. 344 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:25,119 Speaker 1: It was like Darwin was like, I don't want to 345 00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:27,200 Speaker 1: fight about this, and Huxley was like, oh, I will 346 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,800 Speaker 1: bring it off. We are going to talk about some 347 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:33,399 Speaker 1: of these debates after we hear from the sponsors that 348 00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:45,960 Speaker 1: keep stuff you missed in history class going. Huxley got 349 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,280 Speaker 1: into a lot of public debates about Darwin's writing, and 350 00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:52,399 Speaker 1: the most famous of those was a formal debate staged 351 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:56,080 Speaker 1: at Oxford University on June thirtieth, eighteen sixty. It has 352 00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:59,199 Speaker 1: actually come to be known as the Great Debate, and 353 00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:02,119 Speaker 1: this event was part of the ceremony to open the 354 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:06,840 Speaker 1: new University Museum, and it pitted Huxley against Samuel Wilberforce, 355 00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:10,960 Speaker 1: who is the Bishop of Oxford. Wilberforce was a fellow 356 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:13,520 Speaker 1: of the Royal Society in addition to being a leader 357 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:15,760 Speaker 1: in the Anglican Church, so it wasn't like he didn't 358 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,000 Speaker 1: know about talking about science. He was a very strong 359 00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:22,760 Speaker 1: public speaker and he was there to defend creation as 360 00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:25,840 Speaker 1: it is portrayed in the Bible as the true origin 361 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:30,239 Speaker 1: of man. There is actually no full detailed account of 362 00:21:30,280 --> 00:21:33,440 Speaker 1: how the debate played out that evening. I sure wish 363 00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:35,120 Speaker 1: there were, and I know I'm not the only one, 364 00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:38,359 Speaker 1: But there is a moment that has lived on in 365 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:41,520 Speaker 1: accounts of the debate and has been told by many people. 366 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:43,480 Speaker 1: It was written about by a lot of people that 367 00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:47,080 Speaker 1: were there. And this moment is one in which Wilberforce 368 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,920 Speaker 1: tries to throw the theory of evolution in Huxley's face 369 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:54,960 Speaker 1: by suggesting that if he believes this, that means he 370 00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:57,879 Speaker 1: has to acknowledge that one of his forebears must have 371 00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:02,359 Speaker 1: been an ape. And Huxley Famesley replied, quote, if then 372 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:04,480 Speaker 1: the question is put to me whether I would rather 373 00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:07,400 Speaker 1: have a miserable ape for a grandfather, or a man 374 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:11,200 Speaker 1: highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means of influence, 375 00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:15,199 Speaker 1: and yet employs these faculties and that influence for the 376 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:19,920 Speaker 1: purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion. I 377 00:22:20,040 --> 00:22:25,000 Speaker 1: unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape. You'll see other 378 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:27,960 Speaker 1: variations of that sentiment that are written a little bit differently, 379 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:33,199 Speaker 1: because again we're getting them through everybody's secondhand accounts, but 380 00:22:33,560 --> 00:22:35,960 Speaker 1: they all say essentially the same thing, like they're very 381 00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:39,320 Speaker 1: pro ape. The room where that debate took place and 382 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:42,480 Speaker 1: where Wilberforce is recognized as having kind of gotten the 383 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:45,879 Speaker 1: SmackDown is known as the Huxley Room today, and it 384 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:50,359 Speaker 1: houses more than one million insect specimens. Huxley's story and 385 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,359 Speaker 1: his writing also offer up an opportunity to sort of 386 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:57,520 Speaker 1: set the record straight regarding humanity's place and the order 387 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,280 Speaker 1: of things and what Darwin did and didn't say about it. 388 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,400 Speaker 1: A lot of people who argue against the idea that 389 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:09,560 Speaker 1: humanity and apes share a common ancestor kind of blame 390 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:13,480 Speaker 1: that idea on Darwin, when it was really Huxley who 391 00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:17,399 Speaker 1: went hard on it. Darwin's writing on the origin of 392 00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:21,080 Speaker 1: species did not ever make the leap to saying anything 393 00:23:21,760 --> 00:23:25,600 Speaker 1: about the humans and this discussion of various species having 394 00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:29,840 Speaker 1: common ancestors. He literally puts off the question, including it 395 00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:33,399 Speaker 1: as an example of something that will likely be researched later. 396 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:37,639 Speaker 1: He states quote in the distant future, I see open 397 00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:42,200 Speaker 1: fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based 398 00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:45,320 Speaker 1: on a new foundation that of the necessary acquirement of 399 00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:49,560 Speaker 1: each mental power and capacity by gradation, light will be 400 00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:52,600 Speaker 1: thrown on the origin of man and his history. 401 00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:56,000 Speaker 2: He would eventually write. 402 00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:59,280 Speaker 1: About humankind's origins, but not for more than a decade 403 00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:02,600 Speaker 1: after the Origin of species. Yeah. At that point he 404 00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:04,840 Speaker 1: is kind of building on what Huxley was about to 405 00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:09,080 Speaker 1: put forward, because Huxley, unlike Darwin, was willing to jump 406 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:13,680 Speaker 1: into the fray regarding humankind's evolution. Four years after Darwin's 407 00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:17,200 Speaker 1: book came out, Huxley published Evidence as to Man's place 408 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:20,080 Speaker 1: in nature, and in it he makes the case that 409 00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,600 Speaker 1: humans and grade age should be in the same taxonomical class, 410 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:27,440 Speaker 1: namely mammalia. He knew this was going to be difficult 411 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:30,040 Speaker 1: for people to accept, and he addressed it in the work, 412 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,840 Speaker 1: and he suggests in the writing that we pretend we 413 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:36,240 Speaker 1: are from another planet and observing humans as a specimen 414 00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:39,200 Speaker 1: without our own baggage, to make all of these ideas 415 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:43,520 Speaker 1: easier to accept. Writing quote, bearing this obvious course of 416 00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,760 Speaker 1: zoological reasoning in mind, let us endeavor for a moment 417 00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,320 Speaker 1: to disconnect our thinking selves from the mask of humanity. 418 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:55,320 Speaker 1: Let us imagine ourselves scientific saturnians. If you will fairly 419 00:24:55,359 --> 00:24:58,480 Speaker 1: acquainted with such animals as now inhabit the Earth, and 420 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:01,520 Speaker 1: employed in discussing the relations they bear to a new 421 00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:06,800 Speaker 1: and singular, erect and featherless biped which some enterprising traveler, 422 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:11,200 Speaker 1: overcoming the difficulties of space and gravitation, has brought from 423 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:15,679 Speaker 1: that distant planet for our inspection, well preserved, maybe in 424 00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:19,280 Speaker 1: a cask of rum, we should all at once agree 425 00:25:19,359 --> 00:25:23,560 Speaker 1: upon placing him among the mammalian vertebrates, and his lower jaw, 426 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,600 Speaker 1: his molars, and his brain would leave no room for 427 00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:30,400 Speaker 1: doubting the systematic position of the new genus among those 428 00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:34,200 Speaker 1: mammals whose young are nourished during gestation by means of 429 00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:38,280 Speaker 1: a placenta, or what are called the placental mammals. So 430 00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:40,159 Speaker 1: he's basically like, just pretend you don't know you're a 431 00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:43,679 Speaker 1: human and you're looking at this very objectively, it's so 432 00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:48,359 Speaker 1: obvious they're connected. Although Huxley was promoting concepts that he 433 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,000 Speaker 1: knew were going to cause a lot of controversy and disdain, 434 00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:55,960 Speaker 1: particularly from religious quarters, he viewed even that conflict as 435 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:00,640 Speaker 1: a necessary step in moving humankind's understanding of the world forward. 436 00:26:01,280 --> 00:26:01,960 Speaker 2: In the late. 437 00:26:01,800 --> 00:26:05,479 Speaker 1: Eighteen fifties and early eighteen sixties, Huxley was examining the 438 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:08,719 Speaker 1: silty deep sea mud from the floor of the Atlantic 439 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:14,200 Speaker 1: Ocean when he noticed something that he thought might be important. Incidentally, 440 00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:18,040 Speaker 1: that mud sample was collected by the vessel HMS Cyclops 441 00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:20,520 Speaker 1: while it was surveying for the best route for the 442 00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:23,960 Speaker 1: Transatlantic telegraph cable. We talked about that on the show 443 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,080 Speaker 1: all the way back in November of twenty sixteen, and 444 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,199 Speaker 1: while the Cyclops was still at sea, the mud that 445 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,240 Speaker 1: it gathered was examined under a microscope and it was 446 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:36,120 Speaker 1: seen to be quote full of minute shells. 447 00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:37,680 Speaker 2: So by the time. 448 00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:40,639 Speaker 1: Huxley had it, there was already some speculation about it 449 00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:43,959 Speaker 1: having some kind of minuscule forms of life in it. 450 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:47,639 Speaker 1: That was something that everybody involved was really excited about. 451 00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:52,960 Speaker 1: Huxley dubbed these cocoliths, and that was a name that stuck. 452 00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:56,080 Speaker 1: There was not a huge surge of research about them, though, 453 00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:58,720 Speaker 1: and they seemed to drop out of the consciousness of 454 00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:03,080 Speaker 1: the scientific community. But then in eighteen sixty eight Huxley 455 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:05,879 Speaker 1: revisited the mud, which had been preserved in a jar 456 00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,840 Speaker 1: for more than a decade at that point, and at 457 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:11,679 Speaker 1: that point it appeared that there might be a living 458 00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:16,080 Speaker 1: substance in the mud Huxley observed what he described as 459 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:21,120 Speaker 1: quote innumerable lumps of a transparent gelatinous substance that had 460 00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:25,240 Speaker 1: not been there before. Then he examined these lumps, and 461 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:28,560 Speaker 1: he found that they contained cocoliths as well as other 462 00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:33,159 Speaker 1: foreign bodies and granules. Through testing, he came to the 463 00:27:33,160 --> 00:27:36,080 Speaker 1: conclusion that he described in his paper about it, which 464 00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:39,399 Speaker 1: was titled on some organisms living at great depths in 465 00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:42,400 Speaker 1: the North Atlantic Ocean, and he described it this way. 466 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:46,199 Speaker 1: Quote the granule heaps and the transparent gelatinous matter in 467 00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:51,080 Speaker 1: which they are embedded represent masses of protoplasm. Take away 468 00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:55,080 Speaker 1: the cysts which characterized the radiolaria, and a dead spherozoum 469 00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:58,080 Speaker 1: would very nearly resemble one of the masses of this 470 00:27:58,240 --> 00:28:00,960 Speaker 1: deep sea ersk climb, which which must I think be 471 00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:05,080 Speaker 1: regarded as a new form of those simple animated beings 472 00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:08,520 Speaker 1: which have recently been so well described by Heckel in 473 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:12,960 Speaker 1: his monography der Moneran. I propose to confer upon this 474 00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,720 Speaker 1: new owner the generic name of Bathhibius, and to call 475 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,879 Speaker 1: it after the eminent professor of zoology in the University 476 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:21,000 Speaker 1: of Jena, B. 477 00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:21,919 Speaker 2: Hakeli I. 478 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:25,480 Speaker 1: The scientist that he's talking about there, and for whom 479 00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:28,280 Speaker 1: he wanted to name this was Ernst Heckel, who was 480 00:28:28,720 --> 00:28:33,840 Speaker 1: very flattered by this situation. Bathhibius Heclei was entered into 481 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:37,080 Speaker 1: the zoological record that same year, and it became the 482 00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:40,520 Speaker 1: source of a lot of scientific interest as researchers tried 483 00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:43,959 Speaker 1: to analyze its place in the understanding of the origin 484 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:48,920 Speaker 1: of life. Additional samples were collected and similar findings were 485 00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,280 Speaker 1: made with them until the expedition of the HMS Challenger, 486 00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:56,719 Speaker 1: which began in eighteen seventy two. A chemist named Buchanan 487 00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,760 Speaker 1: was on board the ship, and he conducted some experiments 488 00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:02,840 Speaker 1: of his own on the four year voyage. He had 489 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:06,640 Speaker 1: noticed that their samples that were kept in plane seawater 490 00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:11,640 Speaker 1: did not form globules like Huxley's samples had, but when 491 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:15,320 Speaker 1: he added alcohol to the seawater, it spawned a precipitate. 492 00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:20,320 Speaker 1: What Huxley had found was not protoplasm spawning life. He 493 00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:24,480 Speaker 1: had just misidentified a chemical reaction of calcium sulfate or 494 00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:30,520 Speaker 1: gypsum combining with alcohol. Who when Huxley was informed of 495 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:34,760 Speaker 1: this information, bless him, He did not get indignant, He 496 00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,160 Speaker 1: did not get in a big fight about it. He 497 00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:40,080 Speaker 1: wrote a letter to the editor of Nature for publication 498 00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:44,120 Speaker 1: in which he acknowledged his embarrassing error with very good humor, 499 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,280 Speaker 1: stating quote, if you have read your Shakespeare, you would 500 00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,280 Speaker 1: know what it is to mean by eating a leak. Well, 501 00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:52,600 Speaker 1: every honest man has to do that now and then. 502 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:55,960 Speaker 1: And I assure you that if eaten fairly and without grimaces, 503 00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:59,160 Speaker 1: the devouring of that herb has a very wholesome cooling 504 00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:03,200 Speaker 1: effect on the blood, particularly in people of sanguine temperament. 505 00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:07,400 Speaker 1: He also stated, my poor dear Bthhibius appears likely to 506 00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:11,120 Speaker 1: turn out to be a blunderubus. And he stated that 507 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,200 Speaker 1: he intended to always set the record straight at every 508 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:18,320 Speaker 1: opportunity if anyone was walking around with the misinformation that 509 00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:20,920 Speaker 1: he had promoted, and he did that he'd lived that 510 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:24,680 Speaker 1: out the entirity of his life. While he was absolutely 511 00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:27,520 Speaker 1: willing to admit this error, what he would not do 512 00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:30,240 Speaker 1: was let other people use his gaff to try to 513 00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:35,160 Speaker 1: discredit science. George Douglas Campbell, the Duke of Argyle, was 514 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:40,040 Speaker 1: particularly enthusiastic about using this mistake to claim that all 515 00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:45,480 Speaker 1: of the theory of evolution was ridiculous. Huxley responded by saying, quote, 516 00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,680 Speaker 1: the most considerable difference I note among men is not 517 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:51,960 Speaker 1: in their readiness to fall into error, but in their 518 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:57,840 Speaker 1: readiness to acknowledge these inevitable lapses. Thomas Huxley, who had 519 00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:01,960 Speaker 1: gained his vast knowledge through self directed study, believed very 520 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:05,800 Speaker 1: deeply that education was for everyone, and he used his 521 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:09,960 Speaker 1: position as he became a well recognized intellectual, to give 522 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:13,360 Speaker 1: other people an opportunity for education, and in a way 523 00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,520 Speaker 1: that actually tried to decrease the divide between intellectuals and 524 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:21,600 Speaker 1: average people. In the eighteen fifties, he started a project 525 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:25,960 Speaker 1: called the Workingman Lectures, which sought to demystify science and 526 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:29,200 Speaker 1: showed that it was for everyone. These were talks that 527 00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:31,520 Speaker 1: were open to anyone who wished to attend, and they 528 00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:35,400 Speaker 1: were particularly targeted to adults who, like him, did not 529 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:38,480 Speaker 1: get a formal education in their youth. And he laid 530 00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:41,520 Speaker 1: out in really easy to understand terms the ideas that 531 00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:44,400 Speaker 1: were being bandied about by the Royal Society, and he 532 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:47,280 Speaker 1: made clear to any attendees that science was really just 533 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:51,640 Speaker 1: a matter of observing things, questioning them, and examining evidence. 534 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,760 Speaker 1: His advocacy for education for all was really for all 535 00:31:55,920 --> 00:31:59,920 Speaker 1: not just for men, but also for women. In eighteen seventy, 536 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:02,840 Speaker 1: he was one of the founders of the London School 537 00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:06,560 Speaker 1: of Medicine for Women. This effort was in conjunction with 538 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:09,880 Speaker 1: names that have appeared on our show before, including Sofia, 539 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:14,160 Speaker 1: Jex Blake and Elizabeth Blackwell, the doctor not the botanical 540 00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:17,560 Speaker 1: illustrator that we just talked about. They were also both 541 00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:21,080 Speaker 1: involved in the school's founding. Additionally, he helped put together 542 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:24,800 Speaker 1: curricula for teachers to teach science so that educators in 543 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,080 Speaker 1: small towns and more rural areas could benefit from the 544 00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:32,080 Speaker 1: same information that was readily available in the cities. At 545 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 1: the age of sixty eight, Huxley published Evolution and Ethics, 546 00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:38,440 Speaker 1: a book which sought to lay out ways that believing 547 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:41,760 Speaker 1: in the information that science could show, rather than just 548 00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,960 Speaker 1: following religious faith, did not mean that morality was left 549 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:48,600 Speaker 1: out of the equation. Huxley made the case that ethics 550 00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:51,160 Speaker 1: were a vital part of humankind's survival, and that if 551 00:32:51,160 --> 00:32:55,000 Speaker 1: everyone is treated ethically, both the individual and the larger 552 00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:57,760 Speaker 1: group are going to benefit and have a better outcome. 553 00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:02,040 Speaker 1: Huxley is also often credited with coining the term agnostic, 554 00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:04,360 Speaker 1: and he was definitely using it in his writing by 555 00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:08,800 Speaker 1: the eighteen sixties. Throughout his life he often wrote about 556 00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:12,160 Speaker 1: the unknowability of a supreme being and how justice with 557 00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,720 Speaker 1: science a person should look at available evidence when assessing 558 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:19,720 Speaker 1: matters of morality. In an eighteen eighty nine essay titled 559 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:23,560 Speaker 1: Agnosticism in Christianity, he wrote, quote, the extent of the 560 00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:26,520 Speaker 1: region of the uncertain, the number of the problems the 561 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:30,000 Speaker 1: investigation of which ends in a verdict of not proven, 562 00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:33,800 Speaker 1: will vary according to the knowledge and the intellectual habits 563 00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:37,800 Speaker 1: of the individual agnostic. I do not very much care 564 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:41,400 Speaker 1: to speak of anything as unknowable. What I am sure 565 00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:43,800 Speaker 1: about is that there are many topics about which I 566 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:46,560 Speaker 1: know nothing, and which, so far as I can see, 567 00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:50,120 Speaker 1: are out of reach of my faculties. He had also 568 00:33:50,280 --> 00:33:53,880 Speaker 1: included a reference to a footnote after the word unknowable, 569 00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:58,800 Speaker 1: which is sort of charming. He says in that footnote quote, 570 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,880 Speaker 1: I confess that long ago I once or twice made 571 00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:05,160 Speaker 1: this mistake, even to the waste of a capital you 572 00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:08,360 Speaker 1: uh and you know, said in eighteen ninety three. So 573 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:12,359 Speaker 1: basically he went from the unknowable being a capitalized thing 574 00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:15,440 Speaker 1: as being you know, kind of a reference to some 575 00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:17,719 Speaker 1: sort of deity to be like, it doesn't even get 576 00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:22,000 Speaker 1: a capital letter for me anymore. The last dozen years 577 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:25,800 Speaker 1: of Huxley's life included a series of challenges. His daughter 578 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:29,600 Speaker 1: Marian started to have mental health issues. She's described as 579 00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:33,040 Speaker 1: having gone mad, although the specifics are not very clear. 580 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,919 Speaker 1: This happened as Huxley was already stretched a bit thin 581 00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:41,080 Speaker 1: after touring North America giving lectures about the connections between 582 00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:45,239 Speaker 1: birds and dinosaurs, and he was still continuously engaged in 583 00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:48,680 Speaker 1: debates about science. He was basically living with a lot 584 00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:52,160 Speaker 1: of stress, and Marian's mental illness really seemed to have 585 00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:55,200 Speaker 1: kind of broken him. Yeah, he lived his life in 586 00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:58,319 Speaker 1: a constant online argument. Basically, everyone was always coming for 587 00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:01,320 Speaker 1: him because they knew he was the mouthpiece of evolution 588 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:04,520 Speaker 1: and evolutionary science. He had been made President of the 589 00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:07,120 Speaker 1: Royal Society in eighteen eighty three, but he resigned that 590 00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:10,239 Speaker 1: post in eighteen eighty five as his family faced the 591 00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:12,960 Speaker 1: strain of what was going on with Marion. He also 592 00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:15,880 Speaker 1: stopped lecturing, and at that point the Prime Minister, in 593 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:19,400 Speaker 1: recognition of Huxley's lifetime of work, gave him a state 594 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:23,279 Speaker 1: pension of twelve hundred pounds a year. His health really 595 00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:25,800 Speaker 1: began to decline by the start of the eighteen nineties. 596 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,360 Speaker 1: He had issues with his lungs in his heart, and 597 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:30,760 Speaker 1: he moved to the seaside in Sussex in the hopes 598 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:33,279 Speaker 1: that getting out of London would help. London was having 599 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,440 Speaker 1: a very bad small problem at the time. Thomas Huxley 600 00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:39,600 Speaker 1: died of heart failure on June twenty ninth, eighteen ninety five. 601 00:35:40,440 --> 00:35:44,239 Speaker 1: In nineteen oh seven, Huxley's widow, Henrietta, published a book 602 00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,800 Speaker 1: of Thomas's writings that she had selected. It was titled 603 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:52,359 Speaker 1: Aphorisms and Reflections. She wrote the preface to it, and 604 00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:58,200 Speaker 1: no doubt accidentally bolstered this misunderstanding about what Huxley had 605 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:01,319 Speaker 1: actually said about the origin of man. But it's a 606 00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:02,719 Speaker 1: lovely tribute to him. 607 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:03,320 Speaker 2: Quote. 608 00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,640 Speaker 1: Thomas Henry Huxley may come to be remembered by the 609 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:10,000 Speaker 1: public merely as a man who held that we were 610 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:14,160 Speaker 1: descended from the ape, or as the apostle of Darwinism, 611 00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:18,680 Speaker 1: or as the man who worsted Bishop Wilberforce at Oxford 612 00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:23,400 Speaker 1: to prevent such limitation and to afford more intimate and 613 00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,360 Speaker 1: valuable reasons for the remembrance of this man of science 614 00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:29,320 Speaker 1: and lover of his fellow men. I have gathered together 615 00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:33,640 Speaker 1: passages on widely differing themes. Some of the passages were 616 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:37,279 Speaker 1: picked out for their philosophy, some for their moral guidances, 617 00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:42,279 Speaker 1: some for their scientific exposition of natural facts, or for 618 00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,920 Speaker 1: their insight into social questions. Others for their charms of 619 00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:50,120 Speaker 1: imagination are genial humor, and many not the least for 620 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:54,360 Speaker 1: their pure beauty of lucid English writing. I hope that 621 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:57,760 Speaker 1: these selections may attract the attention of the working man 622 00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:02,080 Speaker 1: who's caused my husband so ardently espoused, and to whom 623 00:37:02,160 --> 00:37:04,480 Speaker 1: he was the first to reveal, by his free lectures, 624 00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:08,480 Speaker 1: the loveliness of nature, the many rainbow colored rays of science, 625 00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:12,080 Speaker 1: and to show forth to his listeners how all these 626 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,840 Speaker 1: glorious rays unite in the one, pure white light of 627 00:37:15,960 --> 00:37:20,680 Speaker 1: holy truth. They were both very good writers. Yeah, yeah, 628 00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:22,720 Speaker 1: I just feel like hanging out at their house listening 629 00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:24,000 Speaker 1: to them speak must have been terrific. 630 00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:24,680 Speaker 2: Well, and he. 631 00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:26,720 Speaker 1: Thought he was so bad at it because the bees 632 00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:30,680 Speaker 1: never visited. But he was a terrific writer. Just in 633 00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:35,200 Speaker 1: case you were wondering, writer, Aldus Huxley was Thomas Huxley's grandson. 634 00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:38,200 Speaker 1: In fact, several of his grandsons were quite impressive and 635 00:37:38,239 --> 00:37:43,440 Speaker 1: continued Huxley's legacy in science. His grandson Andrew Fielding Huxley 636 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:47,040 Speaker 1: won the nineteen sixty three Nobel Prize in Physiology or 637 00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:51,400 Speaker 1: Medicine alongside Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Sir John Carew eccles 638 00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:55,440 Speaker 1: quote for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in 639 00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:59,840 Speaker 1: excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of 640 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:02,880 Speaker 1: the nerve cell membrane chip off the old Block. And 641 00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:07,440 Speaker 1: his grandson, Julian Sorel Huxley, was UNESCO's first director and 642 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,080 Speaker 1: one of the founders of the World Wildlife Fund. So 643 00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:13,359 Speaker 1: quite a family to be a part of. Yeah, I 644 00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:15,760 Speaker 1: really like him, and boy do I love his writing. 645 00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:17,040 Speaker 2: He's so quotable. 646 00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:19,520 Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time just reading things he 647 00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:22,960 Speaker 1: wrote that really had no place in the podcast. Yeah, 648 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:26,239 Speaker 1: you have some listener mail for us I do. This 649 00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:30,359 Speaker 1: is from our listener Melanie, who writes, Hi, First of all, 650 00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:33,120 Speaker 1: I love your podcast. My teenager recently asked me a 651 00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:35,279 Speaker 1: history question, and when I said I didn't know the 652 00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:36,920 Speaker 1: answer and we should look it up, he looked at 653 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:38,799 Speaker 1: me and said, I thought you would have heard about 654 00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:41,440 Speaker 1: it in that podcast you listened to. I love to 655 00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:43,320 Speaker 1: talk about the things I learn at the dinner table. 656 00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:45,480 Speaker 1: I'm not sure my kids love it as much as 657 00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:49,400 Speaker 1: I too, though. I am writing because recently you shared 658 00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:52,719 Speaker 1: a reader's email about kids and historical clothing, so I 659 00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:54,400 Speaker 1: thought it would be fun to share a few of 660 00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:58,279 Speaker 1: our family holiday card pictures. Back in twenty seventeen, I 661 00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:01,400 Speaker 1: decided I was bored with doing whatever everyone else was 662 00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:04,080 Speaker 1: doing for their cards and opted to use my theater 663 00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:07,880 Speaker 1: costuming background to be a little creative. Each year, I 664 00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:11,200 Speaker 1: choose an era and make historical clothing for my entire family. 665 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:13,600 Speaker 1: I like to make the card look as close to 666 00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:16,400 Speaker 1: a card or photograph might have in the time it 667 00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:18,520 Speaker 1: is set, or as close to what I imagine they 668 00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:21,000 Speaker 1: would do if they had the technology to do it. 669 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:23,600 Speaker 1: It has been a very fun journey. I'm sending you 670 00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:25,799 Speaker 1: my three favorite which were hard to choose, as well 671 00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:28,360 Speaker 1: as a picture of our frog for pet tax. We 672 00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:30,640 Speaker 1: have many pets, but I haven't heard anyone sharing a 673 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:34,799 Speaker 1: frog yet. And Moss, named after Richard Ioaid's character from 674 00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:39,680 Speaker 1: The It Crowd, is adorable. Moss is adorable. These pictures 675 00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:41,960 Speaker 1: of her family are so stink and cute. The one 676 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:43,879 Speaker 1: that I there were two that I really really love. 677 00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:48,120 Speaker 1: I mean, they're all great. One though, is like nineteen 678 00:39:48,160 --> 00:39:51,760 Speaker 1: fifties where for everybody and it looks like they're essentially 679 00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,760 Speaker 1: on the first opening day of Disneyland. It's the cutest 680 00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:57,680 Speaker 1: thing you've ever seen in your life. Another is them 681 00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:01,719 Speaker 1: in Victorian bathing costs, which is also near and dear 682 00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:04,600 Speaker 1: to my heart. And then there's a third one where 683 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:07,440 Speaker 1: they might have been hobbits. I'm not remembering because I 684 00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:09,040 Speaker 1: printed them out and I looked at them, but we 685 00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:11,200 Speaker 1: have since been on flights that made my brain break 686 00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:14,239 Speaker 1: and my print out came out like my printer just 687 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:17,120 Speaker 1: had a fit. But that frog sure is cute. Moss 688 00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:19,120 Speaker 1: is real cute. I have not watched the It Crowd 689 00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:22,480 Speaker 1: me neither, but I like that frog, and you love frogs. 690 00:40:22,520 --> 00:40:23,440 Speaker 1: I just think they're precious. 691 00:40:23,520 --> 00:40:23,839 Speaker 2: They are. 692 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,279 Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can 693 00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:28,359 Speaker 1: do that at History Podcast at. 694 00:40:28,239 --> 00:40:29,640 Speaker 2: iHeartRadio dot com. 695 00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:32,239 Speaker 1: If you would like to look at the resources we 696 00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:34,960 Speaker 1: use to make the show. As I said, there's a 697 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:36,799 Speaker 1: lot of Huxley writing it, and it is all in 698 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:39,360 Speaker 1: the show notes. You can look at that at mistinhistory 699 00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:42,520 Speaker 1: dot com. You can subscribe to the show on the 700 00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:46,200 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts. 701 00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:54,000 Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 702 00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:58,959 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 703 00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:01,080 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.