THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 47 



entirely undiscussed and untouched.) Who will give us any 

 tangible ideas as to the commencement or end of time, or enable 

 us to conceive either that space is infinite, or that there is a limit 

 to it ? Bailey, in his poem of Festus, has a passage, " all points 

 are central to the infinite," that is demonstrably true, but which of 

 us can really picture to his mind that to which all points are cen- 

 tral? On the other hand, a limit is beyond our conception. When 

 our fathers were boys a question was asked of them which is as 

 difficult to answer to-day as it was then — If you stood on the edge 

 of space could you stretch out your hand, or could you not ; if you 

 could where would you stretch it to ; if you could not what would 

 stop you ? It is, therefore, not any slur upon biological science 

 that it cannot explain the origin of life, and it cannot surely be 

 desirable to strain evolution in order to do so until we have some 

 evidence on the point. 



The second path along which Mr. Darwin's followers may be 

 tempted too far is in the endeavour to explain every biological fact 

 by survival of the fittest or sexual selection. It may be that there 

 is such an explanation, but that we cannot discover it. The web 

 is often difficult to unravel, yet almost every naturalist who 

 observes a new fact feels not only that there must be some such ex- 

 planation but also that it is incumbent upon him in particular to 

 find it out, and there is a feeling of disappointment if he cannot 

 frame a theory satisfactory to his own mind. We all of us feel 

 this, and I confess that I, amongst others, naturally think when I 

 observe something which I had not previously noticed, " Now how 

 can I explain this ? " but the feeling certainly has a tendency to 

 produce far-fetched explanations when simpler ones are not easily 

 found. I will give two or three instances of what I mean, and I 

 must expressly premise that I do not in any way assert that these 

 explanations are wrong ; they may all be perfectly correct, but I 

 quote them simply to show how incumbent men feel it upon them 

 to give explanations of this nature of obscure phenomena. The 

 first example I will purposely take from a work of the highest 

 authority, in which we must all admire both the great ability and 

 patient study. In Weismann's " Studies on the Theory of 

 Descent," he gives an explanation of two spots, one on each side 

 of the third segment of the larva of one of the foreign Sphingidce 

 (Deilephelct) ; these he calls eye-spots ; they are large brown 

 spots, surrounded by light and dark rings. When touched, this 

 Journ. Q. M. C, Series II., No. 18. 5 



