The Red Notebook

When new human fossils come to light, it’s understandable, and indeed laudible, that scientists can end up disagreeing over what it is that has actually been found. Homo floresiensis is a fascinating recent example, with some scientists claiming that it is a new human species, whereas others claim it is Homo sapiens with a bad case of microcephaly. The jury is still out—although, to this unqualified outsider at least, the argument for its being a new species seems to be winning at the moment.

I was reminded of the Homo floresiensis controversy when I came across the following quote in an 1864 paper by Thomas Henry Huxley entitled Further Remarks upon the Human Remains from the Neanderthal:

M. Pruner-Bey seems to incline to the hypothesis that the Neanderthal man was an idiot: but I confess I find much weight in the pithy reply of M. Broca:-

“Idiocy, competent to produce a cranium of this kind, is necessarily microcephalic; now this skull is not microcephalous, therefore it is not that of an idiot.”

Plus ça change. It would appear that microcephaly is not a new explanation for human fossils with small brains.

• Let’s Not Call Them Hobbits
• Are You Calling My Fox Terrier Stupid?
• Hobbit folk ‘were just sick humans’

Thomas Henry Huxley from a Daguerreotype made in 1846

I was flicking through my copy of volume one of The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley by his son Leonard Huxley (1900) yesterday, when I came across this photograph of the fresh-faced Huxley taken shortly before he set off for New Guinea and Australia aboard HMS Rattlesnake.

I had no recollection of this photograph, although a subsequent search showed that it also appears in volume one of Adrian Desmond’s biography of Huxley. But the photograph did not appear when I carried out a quick Google search for images of Huxley. So I thought I’d better publish it here to ensure that it turns up in future searches.

I’m rather pleased to own copies of the two volumes of The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley. I picked them up in a second-hand bookshop many years ago. Previously, they had resided in the Scottish Liberal Club’s Gladstone Memorial Library.

See also: HMS Rattlesnake figurehead

HMS Rattlesnake Figurehead (cc Kaptain Kobold)

Almost by accident, I just came across this photograph on Flickr of the figurehead of HMS Rattlesnake, the ship on which Darwin’s Bulldog, Thomas Henry Huxley, voyaged as assistant surgeon from 1846–50.

Rattlesnake was to Huxley what HMS Beagle was to Darwin. It’s fantastic that her figurehead still exists.

Finally I have a reason to visit Farnborough!

More photos here.

• Figurehead of the imagination?
• HMS Kangaroo

Brian Switek, FCD, over at Laelaps has written an excellent post, trying to redress some of the balance in the Richard Owen (villain) v Thomas Henry Huxley (hero) stereotype. It’s a subject I have covered in the past, but Brian’s post goes into more detail.

Nice one, Brain! More, please.