Here he worked very hard--when it pleased him--took up all sorts of
pursuits and dropped them again, and read everything he could lay
hands upon, including novels. The one instructor by whom he was really
impressed, and for whom he did his utmost, was Wharton Jones, lecturer
on physiology. "He was extremely kind and helpful to the youngster,
who, I am afraid, took up more of his time than he had any right to
do." Wharton Jones assuredly was one of those born teachers who love
to give time and all to a keen and promising pupil. It is good to
know that the bread he cast upon the waters returned to him after many
days. Wharton Jones, too, was responsible for the publication of the
young man's first scientific paper, in the _Medical Gazette_ of 1845.
Investigating things for himself, the student of nineteen had found
a hitherto undiscovered membrane in the root of the human hair, which
received the name of Huxley's layer.
No doubt his work was, as he confesses, not systematically spread over
his various subjects; and his energy was fitful, though it was energy
that struck his contemporaries, who gave the name of the "Sign of
the Head and Microscope" to the familiar silhouette of him as he sat
before a window poring over his dissections, while they swarmed out
into the quadrangle after lectures.
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