Thomas Henry Huxley (Huxley Thomas Henry)

(1825-1895)
Born May 4, 1825 in Ealing near London. He graduated from medical school at Charing Cross Hospital. Began career as a naturalist on board a military ship, participating as an assistant doctor in a four-year expedition of the frigate 'Rattlsneyk', cruising near Australia. He studied marine organisms, which are procured with the help of wire baskets for food storage, and sent to England, the results of their research. His brilliant article made such an impression on the scientific world, that in 1850, shortly after returning to England, Huxley was elected a member of the Royal Society of London. In 1854 he obtained a place paleontologist at the Museum of Practical Geology. At the same time he lectured on natural history at the Royal School of Mines in London.
Huxley's works are devoted to zoology and anthropology. He developed the basis of classification of vertebrates, has developed state of the unity of the structure of their skulls. He proved the morphological proximity of birds and reptiles, jellyfish and polyps. In 1859, after Darwin published The Origin of Species, Huxley immediately became the chief defender of his theory, participating in for many years in public debates on this issue. In 1860 took part in the famous debate with Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford St.. In 1863 in his book State of Rights in a number of organic beings (Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature) Huxley openly about the morphological proximity of man and higher apes

. Huxley was a member of the Board of Eton, . was rector of the University of Aberdeen, . board member of the University of London, . Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons, . board member Ouenz College (later Manchester University), . Professor of the British Institute, . board member of the International College, . Dean of the College of the British scientific,
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Huxley died in Eastbourne (Sussex) 29 June 1895.