NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 47 



the grasse be purified from the fresh taste and turned to the salt ; 

 and lest any part thereof should escape, they labour to hold it in, 

 with labour of their nebbes. Thereafter orderly euery fowle eats 

 his portion, and this custome they obserue perpetually. They are 

 verie fatte, and verie delicious to bee eaten," 



V. — O71 the Darwinian Hypothesis of the Transmutation of Species. 



By Dr Scouler. 



He remarked that the doctrine was by no means a new one, but 

 had occupied the attention of naturalists from the earliest times. 

 In this respect there was nothing new in the views of Mr Darwin, 

 although at the same time there was much both new and valuable 

 in his work, which would be a permanent acquisition to science. 

 The doctrine, however, respecting the transmutation of species was 

 that of Lamarck, with the weak points skilfully eliminated; and 

 the hypothesis of a prototype animal had been long ago proposed 

 by Robinet aud Dr Erasmus Darwin, author of the " Zoonomia." 

 The basis of Mr Darwin's speculations was that animals pass, by 

 insensible gradations, into each other, and consequently there is no 

 such thing as a species. In opposition to this, it was shown that 

 throughout nature there were abrupt transitions, and voids which 

 cannot be filled up. It was also stated that, in opposition to Mr 

 Darwin's views, there were arrangements and structures in the 

 animal kingdom which had no relation to utility, nor were neces- 

 sary to the existence of species, and consequently these were 

 inexplicable on the principle of natural selection. 



January 6th, 1863. 

 John Scouler, M.D., LL.D., F.L.S., President, in the chair, 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



Dr Dewar exhibited a fine specimen of the Capercailzie (Tetrao 

 Urogallus), from Breadalbane forest, where it was shot last month ; 

 also, a specimen of the Greenland falcon {Falco Gh'eenlandicus), from 

 Islay. This handsome bird, which is the Falco Candicans of Schle- 

 gel, is a species of very rare occurrence in the British islands, and 

 sufiiciently attractive to excite more than a passing notice. At 

 various times white falcons are recorded as having; been shot, 

 and these chiefly in the north of Scotland, under the name of 



