48 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



That the strict uniformitarian view is as false in philoso- 

 phy as it is unfounded on fact is an opinion which was 

 shared by the late Professor Prestwich, and which is held 

 by many of the Geologists of to-day, as it was by the great 

 masters of old. It is tantamount to asserting that the 

 progress of events on the earth can be represented by a 

 curve which is a straight line. We should think strangely of 

 the physicist who from the behaviour of a fluid through 

 the range of ordinary atmospheric temperature should 

 proceed to deduce from it a rate of expansion up to the 

 temperature of the sun in one direction and down to 

 absolute zero in the other ; and yet this would scarcely 

 show greater wisdom than the procedure of the geologist 

 who from a knowledge of the earth's history during the 

 past few thousand years should endeavour to deduce from 

 it the rate of events during 30,000,000 of years in the 

 past ! 



Dr. Buckland was succeeded by Professor Phillips, a 

 man of most varied genius, a classical scholar, an expert 

 mathematician, an omnivorous reader, facile both with 

 pencil and pen, interested in all science and a master in his 

 own. He taught in this University for more than twenty 

 years, and during that period he enriched our science by 

 numerous contributions of the highest value. A smooth and 

 easy progress marked the course of Geology, and knowledge 

 steadily enlarged its bounds. The great Cetiosaurus, one 

 of the greatest of the old world monsters, larger even than 

 the great Iguanodon which is now represented in our 

 museum, we owe to him. Towards the end of his career, 

 Geology like all other science was confronted by the re- 

 appearance of an old and discredited doctrine, but now pre- 

 sented afresh with new and startling vigour, it was the 

 doctrine of Evolution as expounded in the famous Origin of 

 Species by Nahcral Selection. Once more an Oxford pro- 

 fessor was called upon to pronounce judgment on one of 

 those momentous questions which arise from time to time 

 to disturb the steady current of established thought. 



Darwin's present of a copy of his book was accompanied 

 by the following letter : — 



