402 British Association, 



and tbat a nation cannot advance except its material condition be 

 touched, — this having been the case throughout all Europe, as is 

 manifested by the diminution of the blue-eyed races thereof; 

 that all organisms and even man are dependent for their charac- 

 teristics, continuance, and life on the physical conditions under 

 which they live ; that the existing apparent invariability presented 

 by the world of organization is the direct consequence of the phy- 

 sical equilibrium, but that if that should suffer modification, in an 

 instant the fanciful doctrine of the immutability of species would 

 be brought to its proper value. The organic world appears to be 

 in repose because natural influences have reached an equilibrium. 

 , A marble may remain motionless for ever on a level table, but let 

 the table be a little inclined, and the marble will quickly run ofl ; 

 and so it is with oro-anisms in the world. From his work on 

 Physiology, published in 1856, he gave his views in support of 

 the doctrine of the transmutation of species; the transitional 

 forms of the animal and also the human type ; the production of 

 new ethnical elements, or nations ; and the laws of their origin, 

 duration, and death. 



The announcement of this paper attracted an immense audience 

 to the Section, which met this morning in the Library of the New 

 Museum. The discussion was commenced by the Rev. Mr. 

 Cresswell, who denied that any parallel could be drawn between 

 the intellectual progress of man and the physical development of 

 the lower animals. So far from the author being correct with 

 regard to the history of Greece, its masterpieces in literature — 

 the Iliad and Odyssey — were produced during its national in- 

 fancy. The theory of intellectual development proposed was 

 directly opposed to the known facts of the history of man. — Sir 

 B. Brodie stated, he could not subscribe to the hypothesis of Mr, 

 Darwin. His primordial germ had not been demonstrated to 

 have existed. Man had a power of self-consciousness — a prin- 

 ciple differing from anything found in the material world, and 

 he did not see how this could originate in lower organisms 

 This power of man was identical with the Divine Intelligence ; 

 and to suppose that this could originate with matter, involved the 

 absurdity of supposing the source of Divine power dependent on 

 the arrano^ement of matter. The Bishop of Oxford stated that 

 the Darwinian theory, when tried by the principles of inductive 

 science, broke down. The facts brought forward did not warrant 

 the theory. The permanence of specific forms was a fact con- 



