HUXLEY, THOMAS HENRY, an English biologist and essayist; born in Ealing, England, Delay 4, 1825. He was graduated at London University in 1845.
In 1846-1850 he sailed around the world as a naval surgeon. In 1851 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society; Professor of Natural History in the School of Alines in 1854; Hunterian Professor in the Royal College of Sur geons in 1863; president of the British Geological and Ethnological Societies in 1869; secretary of the Royal Society in 1872; Lord Rector of Aberdeen Univer sity in 1872; and president of the Royal Society in 1883. He was an able ad vocate of Darwinian evolution, and was perhaps best known to the popular ap prehension by his agnostic speculations, in expounding which he came into con troversy with the defenders of Theism and Christianity. He wrote: "Anat omy of Vertebrate Animals"; "Anatomy of Invertebrate Animals"; "Alan's Place in Nature"; "Lay Sermons"; "Evolution and Ethics"; etc. He died in East bourne, England, June 29, 1895.
HUY (ii-E'), a town of Belgium; on both banks of the Aleuse, 19 miles S. W. of Liege. Its citadel (1822), whose works are partly excavated in the solid rock, commands the passage of the river. The Church of Notre Dame, a graceful Gothic edifice, was begun in 1311. In the vicinity are iron works and coal mines, and the manufactures include paper, leather, beer, spirits, etc. Peter the
Hermit founded here the former abbey of Neufrnoustier (Novunt Monasterium), and here in 1115, he died. Huy has been frequently besieged. In the World War, when Belgium was invaded by the Ger mans, Huy was attacked and on13,, yielded to superior numbers after heavy fight ing. Pop. about 15,000.
HuYGENS, CHRISTIAN (hoi'gens), an eminent Dutch mathematician and astronomer; born in The Hague, April 14, 1629. He settled in Paris in 1663, at the invitation of Colbert, who bestowed on him a handsome pension, but returned to the Netherlands in 1681. In pure ge ometry, Huygens gave the reasons for quadrature of the hyperbola, the el lipsis, and the circle; in mechanics, he laid down the theory of the pendulum, and its application to the clock; he dis cerned the synchronism of the cycloid, invented the theory of involutes and evo lutes of curves, and explored the doctrine of centers of oscillation; most important of all, he announced the law of the mo tion of bodies revolving in circles, there by "grazing" the law of gravitation. In astronomy, we owe him an improve ment of the telescope and the memorable discovery of Saturn's ring. In optics he laid the foundation of the theory of un dulations. He died in The Hague, June 8, 1695.