The Huxley family is a British family, consisting of several notables in several fields.
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Notable members
Thomas Henry Huxley
Lived from 1825–1895, married Anne Heathorn (1825-1915): English biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his defence of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Successfully campaigned against the stifling of scientific debate by the Church. Transformed the teaching of science in British schools, and the teaching of biology in British universities. A noted figure in agnosticism, credited with coining the term "agnostic."
Leonard Huxley
(1860–1933): He married firstly Julia Arnold, a sister of the novelist Mary Augusta Ward, niece of the poet Matthew Arnold, and granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School who was immortalised as a character in the novel Tom Brown's Schooldays. Their four children included the biologist Sir Julian Sorell Huxley and the writer Aldous Leonard Huxley. In his own right Leonard wrote editions of Life and Letters of Thomas Jefferson. After the death of his first wife, Leonard married Rosalind Bruce (said to be related in some way to Robert the Bruce), and had two further sons. The younger of these was the physiologist Andrew Fielding Huxley.
Julian Huxley
(1887–1975): First Director-General of UNESCO. Secretary of Zoological Society and co-founder of the World Wildlife Fund. Biologist who played a key role in the modern evolutionary synthesis. Won the Darwin Medal of the Royal Society, the Darwin-Wallace Medal of the Linnaean Society, the Kalinga Prize and the Lasker Award. Presided over the founding conference for the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Author of fifty books.
Aldous Huxley
(1894–1963): Julian's brother who wrote Brave New World, which began as a parody of Men Like Gods by H. G. Wells. He also wrote The Doors of Perception, which inspired the name of the band The Doors and was an early example of psychedelic literature. He was associated with Vedanta.
Andrew Huxley
(b. 1917): A winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studies of the central nervous system. He married Jocelyn Richenda Pease, distantly related to the Pease Family.
Mental problems in the family
Biographers have sometimes noted the occurrence of mental illness in the Huxley family. His father became "sunk in worse than childish imbecility of mind" [1], and later died in Barming Asylum; brother George suffered from "extreme mental anxiety" [2] and died in 1863 leaving serious debts. Brother James was at 55 "as near mad as any sane man can be" [3]; and there is more. His favourite daughter, the artistically talented Mady (Marion), who became the first wife of artist John Collier, was troubled by mental illness for years. By her mid-twenties it was becoming clear that she was not sane, and was getting steadily worse (the diagnosis is uncertain). Huxley persuaded Jean-Martin Charcot, one of Freud's teachers, to examine her with a view to treatment; but soon Mady died of pneumonia.[4][5] It was a terrible blow to her husband and parents. About Huxley himself we have a more complete record. As a young apprentice to a medical practitioner, aged thirteen or fourteen, Huxley was taken to watch a post-mortem dissection. Afterwards he sank into a 'deep lethargy' and though Huxley ascribed this to dissection poisoning, Bibby[6] and others are surely right to suspect that emotional shock precipitated the depression. Huxley recuperated on a farm, looking thin and ill. The next episode we know of in Huxley's life when he suffered a debilitating depression was on the third voyage of HMS Rattlesnake in 1848.[7] This voyage was mostly to New Guinea and the NE Australian coast, including the Great Barrier Reef, which is a kind of wonderland for any zoologist, especially a young man hoping to make his career. The story is clear from the diary Huxley kept: p112 'little interest in the Barrier Reef'; p116 'two entries in seven weeks'; p117 '3 months passed and no journal' p124 'the black months of struggle and depression'.[8] For Huxley to pass up such a golden opportunity speaks of his state of mind quite painfully. Huxley had periods of depression at the end of 1871 ('overwork' the explanation, true, but when was he not overworked?): alleviated by a cruise to Egypt.[9] Again in 1873, this time coincident with expensive building work on his house. His friends were really alarmed, and his doctor ordered three months rest. The three wives of Lyell, Darwin and Tyndall decided something had to be done. Darwin picked up his pen, and with Tyndall's help raised £2,100 — an enormous sum! The money was partly to pay for his recuperation, and partly to pay his bills. Huxley set out in July with Hooker to the Auvergne, and his wife and son Leonard joined him in Cologne, while the younger children stayed at Down House in Emma Darwin's care.[10]
Finally, in 1884 he sank into another depression, and this time it precipitated his decision to retire in 1885, at the age of only 60.[11] He resigned the Presidency of the Royal Society in mid-term, the Inspectorship of Fisheries, and his chair (as soon as he decently could) and took six month's leave. His pension was a fairly handsome £1500 a year. This is enough to indicate the way depression (or perhaps a moderate bi-polar disorder) interfered with his life, yet unlike some of the other family members, he was able to function extremely well at other times. Perhaps it is not too surprising to find that the perceptive Beatrice Webb had written in her diary, after a conversation with Huxley, "Huxley, when not working, dreams strange things; carries on conversations between unknown persons living within his brain. There is a strain of madness in him".[12][13] An overstatement, but probably not written for publication. The problems continued sporadically into the third generation. Two of Leonard's sons suffered serious depression: Trevennen committed suicide in 1914 and Julian suffered a breakdown in 1913[14], and five more later in life. Of course, there are many family members for whom no biographical information is available, but both the talent and the mental problems would have interested Francis Galton. His Hereditary Genius[15] contained this comment: "The direct result of this enquiry is... to prove that the laws of heredity are as applicable to the mental faculties as to the bodily faculties".
See also
- Thomas Arnold
- Intellectualism
- John Collier (artist)
