It was now time for Huxley definitely to enter on his profession.  He would have preferred to continue his investigations in London and to wait for the chance of a teaching post in physiology, but it was necessary to earn a living.  One of those whom he consulted was his fellow-student, Joseph Fayrer, who, hailing from Bermuda, knew something of those who go down to the sea in ships.  He advised Huxley to write to Sir William Burnett, at that time Director-General for the medical service of the navy, for an appointment.

“I thought this rather a strong thing to do,” says Huxley in his autobiography, “as Sir William was personally unknown to me; but my cheery friend would not listen to my scruples, so I went to my lodgings and wrote the best letter I could devise.  A few days afterwards I received the usual official circular of acknowledgement, but at the bottom was written an instruction to call at Somerset House on such a day.  I thought that looked like business, so, at the appointed time I called and sent in my card, while I waited in Sir William’s ante-room.  He was a tall, shrewd-looking old gentleman, with a broad Scotch accent—­and I think I see him now as he entered with my card in his hand.  The first thing he did was to return it with the frugal reminder that I should probably find it useful on some other occasion.  The second was to ask whether I was an Irishman.  I suppose the air of modesty about my appeal must have struck him.  I satisfied the Director-General that I was English to the backbone, and he made some enquiries as to my student career, finally desiring me to hold myself ready for examination.  Having passed this, I was in Her Majesty’s service, and entered on the books of Nelson’s old ship, the Victory, for duty at Haslar Hospital, about a couple of months after I made my application.”

About the same time he passed the examination of the Royal College of Surgeons and so became a fully qualified medical man.  Haslar Hospital was the chief naval hospital to which invalided sailors were sent.  There was a considerable staff of young surgeons, as navy surgeons were usually sent for a term to work in the hospital before being gazetted to a ship in commission.  In connection with the hospital, there was a museum of natural history containing a collection of considerable importance slowly gathered from the gifts of sailors and officers.  The museum curator was an enthusiastic naturalist, and Huxley must have had the opportunity of extending his knowledge of at least the external characters of many forms of life hitherto unknown to him.  A few years later, the curator of the museum, with the help of two of Huxley’s successors, published a Manual of Natural History for the Use of Travellers, and it is certain that Huxley at least did not lose at Haslar any of the enthusiasm for zooelogy with which he had been inspired at the Charing Cross Hospital.  The chief of the hospital was Sir John Richardson,