Thomas Huxley & Oxford Debate

1825 Thomas Henry Huxley (d. 1895), English scientist, supporter and populariser of Charles Darwin's theories. His investigations in comparative anatomy, palaeontology and evolution exerted a great influence on 19th- century biology. He was the grandfather of biologist Julian Huxley and writer Aldous Huxley.

At the famous Oxford University Meeting of 1860, Huxley defended Darwin's theory of Natural Selection against Samuel Wilberforce, the Bishop of Oxford. Wilberforce used essentially the same arguments that he had used in his anonymous review of Darwin's epochal On the Origin of Species for the previous July's The Quarterly Review. Then he smugly asked, was it through Huxley's grandfather or his grandmother that he claimed his descent from a monkey?

“Huxley instantly grasped the tactical advantage which the descent to personalities gave him. He turned to Sir Benjamin Brodie, who was sitting beside him, and emphatically striking his hand upon his knee, exclaimed, ‘The Lord hath delivered him into mine hands.’ The bearing of the exclamation did not dawn upon Sir Benjamin until after Huxley had completed his ‘forcible and eloquent’ answer to the scientific part of the Bishop's argument, and proceeded to make his famous retort ...

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