Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature

1863

Storage Bliss HB H

London: Williams and Norgate

Known as ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’, biologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) advocated for the acceptance of Darwin’s theory of evolution. In 1860, Huxley debated with Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (son of famed abolitionist William Wilberforce) over man’s descent from apes. Wilberforce asked Huxley in jest whether the apes were on his grandfather’s or his grandmother’s side of the family. Huxley replied that he would ‘rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather’ than a man ‘possessed of great means of influence & yet who employs … that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion’. Thomas Huxley’s son, Leonard Huxley (1860-1933), married schoolmistress Julia Arnold (1862-1908), Tasmanian-born daughter of Tom Arnold and sister of Mary Augusta Ward.