credit. Scientific technicalities became the catchwords of society, and
the echoes of the great Hippocampus question linger in the delightful
pages of the "Water-Babies." Of this fight Huxley writes to Sir J.
Hooker on April 18, 1861:--]

A controversy between Owen and myself, which I can only call absurd (as
there is no doubt whatever about the facts), has been going on in the
"Athenaeum," and I wound it up in disgust last week.

[And again on April 27:--]

Owen occupied an entirely untenable position--but I am nevertheless
surprised he did not try "abusing plaintiff's attorney." The fact is he
made a prodigious blunder in commencing the attack, and now his only
chance is to be silent and let people forget the exposure. I do not
believe that in the whole history of science there is a case of any man
of reputation getting himself into such a contemptible position. He will
be the laughing-stock of all the continental anatomists.

Rolleston has a great deal of Oxford slough to shed, but on that very
ground his testimony has been of most especial service. Fancy that man
-- telling Maskelyne that Rolleston's observations were entirely
confirmatory of Owen.

[About the same time he writes to his wife:--]

April 16.

People are talking a good deal about the "Man and the Apes" question,
and I hear that somebody, I suspect Monckton-Milnes, has set afloat a