M.B.

Thomas Henry Huxley, the great Victorian scientist, "Darwin's bulldog," was born in Ealing on May 4, 1825. Despite having only two years of formal schooling, he obtained his M.B. at London University in 1845. This led to a posting as a naval surgeon with H.M.S. Rattlesnake on a surveying voyage to Australia from 1846 to 1850. Research undertaken on this trip led to anatomical papers on the hydrozoa and medusae that were rewarded when he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1851. In 1854, Huxley left the navy and joined the Royal School of Mines in London as lecturer in natural history. He married an Australian, Henrietta Anne Heathorn, in July 1855. His lifelong defence of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species began in 1859 with an article in The Times. He became Hunterian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons (1863-69) and Fullerian professor at the Royal Institution (1863-67), President of the Royal Society (1881), and recipient of the Copley Medal (1888) and the Darwin Medal (1894). Huxley authored two popular textbooks, Elementary Lessons in Physiology (1866) and, with H. N. Martin, Elementary Biology (1875), that put both disciplines on firm scientific grounds. Among his greatest achievements are nine volumes of essays. To his great credit, Huxley championed curiosity-based scientific research and argued that the core of higher education consisted, not of technical subjects, but of science, literature, art, history, and philosophy. Bad health caused Huxley to retire in 1885 and to leave London for Eastbourne in 1890. He died June 29, 1895, at Eastbourne from kidney disease and was survived by his wife, two sons, and four daughters. Huxley was interred at Finchley and St. Marylebone Cemetery.

• Huxley, Leonard. The Life and Letters of T. H. Huxley. 2 vols. New York: D. Appleton, 1900. QH 31 .H9A4 1900 Gerstein Library
• W., W.F.R. "Huxley, Thomas Henry." The Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee. Vol. XXII: Supplement. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1921-22. 894-903. Poems of Henrietta A. Huxley with Three of Thomas Henry Huxley. London: Duckworth, 1913. 9700.d.1043 Cambridge University Library

Poet, playwright, and pioneer of the Irish literary movement, John Todhunter was born in Dublin on December 30, 1839, and educated at medical school in Trinity College, from which he graduated M.B. in 1867 and M.D. in 1871. In Dublin he acted as Visiting Physician at the Cork Street Fever Hospital and, from 1870 to 1874, Professor of English Literature at Alexandria College. He re-settled in Bedford Park, London, in 1881. His first wife, née Ball, died shortly after their marriage in May 1870. He and his second wife, Dora L. Digby, wed in 1879. For many years he was a member of the Rhymers' Club, and the Sette of Odd Volumes. He died in Chiswick.

• Heine, Heinrich. Book of Songs. Trans. John Todhunter. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907. PT 2316 .A4T6 Robarts Library
• Mahony, Christina Hunt. "Todhunter, John (1839–1916)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed. Ed. Lawrence Goldman. May 2007.
• Quatrains Collected from the Miscellaneous Publications and Scattered Documents of The Sette of Odd Volumes Together with a Fore-Word on the Quatrain as a Form of Literary Art. Ed. Silvanus P. Thompson. Introduction by John Todhunter. Opusculum 52. Chiswick Press, 1905. Ac. 9128 British Library. del T645 Z5T56 1905 Fisher Rare Book Library
• Todhunter, John. Alcestis: a Dramatic Poem. London: C.K. Paul, 1879. del T645 A53 1879 Fisher Rare Book Library
• --. The Banshee, and Other Poems. London: K. Paul, Trench, 1888. del T645 B36 1888 Fisher Rare Book Library
• --. Forest Songs and Other Poems. London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Co., 1881. 11653.g.2 British Library. PR 5671 T245F6 Robarts Library
• --. Laurella, and Other Poems. London: Henry S. King, 1876. del T645 L38 1876 Fisher Rare Book Library
• --. Selected Poems by John Todhunter. Ed. D. L. Todhunter and Alfred Perceval Graves. London: Elkin Mathews and Marrot, 1929. 011644.h.7 British Library
• --. Sounds and Sweet Airs. London: E. Mathews, 1905. del T645 S68 1905 Fisher Rare Book Library