However, those willing to give him support included the biologist and Gold
Medallist of the Royal Society, Thomas Huxley, who described himself as being
bowled over by the Origin:
My Dear Darwin,Since I read Von Bar’s essays, nine years ago, no work on Natural
History Science I have met with has made so great an impression on me ... I trust you will
not allow yourself to be in any way disgusted or annoyed by the considerable abuse and
misrepresentation which, unless I greatly mistake, is in store for you. Depend upon it you
have earned the lasting gratitude of all thoughtful men. And as to the curs which will bark
and yelp, you must recollect that some of your friends, at any rate, are endowed with an
amount of combativeness which (though you have often and justly rebuked it) may stand in
your good stead.Huxley became one of Darwin’s staunchest defenders. A fiery supporter of Darwin’s
ideas, he assumed the role of Darwin’s champion and by facing down his detractors
and promoting his theories he soon became known as ‘Darwin’s Bulldog’. A few
months after the publication of the Origin there was a public showdown in Oxford
between Bishop Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley at a meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science. This was the same Samuel Wilberforce
who, while a parish reverend, had advised the local squires to take education in hand
lest the country folk learn ‘a smattering of science’ and forget their God-given duties.
Bishop Wilberforce began the dialogue by boldly asking: ‘Has any one such
instance of natural selection ever been discovered? We fearlessly assert not one’ He
then baited Huxley by asking him if he was related to an ape on his grandmother’s or
grandfather’s side. In response Huxley answered that ‘I would rather have a miserable
ape for a grandfather than a man possessed of great means and influence who employs
these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a
grave scientific discussion. I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.’
Or as the popular press described it, Huxley responded by saying, ‘I would rather
be descended from an ape than a bishop.’
The meeting descended into chaos and as the scientists began arguing amongst
themselves, in the centre of the room, his face contorted with rage, Robert FitzRoy could
be seen waving a Bible over his head while denouncing Darwin and all his works.
In April 1860 the Edinburgh Review published Richard Owen’s anonymous review
of the Origin. In it Owen showed his anger at what he saw as Darwin’s caricature of
the creationist position and for ignoring his own theory ‘of the continuous operation
of the ordained becoming of living things’. He also attacked Darwin’s ‘disciples’,
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