always really 'great' about the old professor; and when he discussed with us the records of his original work of long ago, there was to be got from his lectures something splendid and even inspiring" (address at the Masonic Hall, 1 May 1914). In September 1896 Halford was given leave of absence on account of ill-health until the end of 1897. This leave was afterwards extended and he did not become emeritus professor until 1900. After his retirement he lived at Beaconsfield near Melbourne and was much interested in the development of coal-mining in South Gippsland. He celebrated his golden wedding in 1907 and died at Inverloch, Victoria, on 27 May 1910. He was survived by three daughters and six sons, two of whom entered the medical profession. In 1928 his family founded the Halford Oration at the Australian Institute of Anatomy, Canberra. A list of Halford's contributions to medical literature can be found in the Medical Journal of Australia for 19 January 1929, page 71. Creationism Halford was a creationist who rejected evolution. He criticized the idea of common descent and challenged the views of T. H. Huxley. He argued that humans and apes shared no common ancestor. In his book on snake venom he wrote that the snake had been designed by "some omnipotent power with infinite will." Publications On the Time and Manner of Closure of the Auriculo-Ventricular Valves (1861) Not Like Man, Bimanous and Biped, nor yet Quadrumanous, but Cheiropodous (1863) Lines of Demarcation Between Man, Gorilla, & Macaque (1864) Thoughts, Observations and Experiments on the Action of Snake Venom on the Blood (1894) See also Royal College of Physicians References K. F. Russell, 'Halford, George Britton (1824 - 1910)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, MUP, 1972, pp 321–322. Retrieved 3 January 2009 Further reading Barry Butcher. (1988). Gorilla Warfare in Melbourne: Halford, Huxley and Man's Place in Nature. In R. W. Home. Australian Science in the Making. Cambridge University Press. pp. 153–167. 1824 births 1910 deaths British Christian creationists Alumni of the University of St Andrews Australian people of English descent Australian physiologists English anatomists English physiologists People from Petworth University of Melbourne faculty