148 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. vii. 



AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE- 

 MENT OF SCIENCE. 



At the recent meeting of the American Association held at 

 Portland, a large number of interesting papers were read, one of 

 which, by Principal Dawson, is given in full in the present num- 

 ber of this journal. 



We have, as yet, been unable to obtain full reports of the pro- 

 ceedings ; but give a few abstracts of some of the most interest- 

 ing papers and discussions, from the reports of the JS^ew York 

 Tribune. 



ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



The address of J. Lawrence Smith, the retiring President^ 

 was read by Prof Putnam, the President being absent in Vienna, 

 The following is given by the Tribune as the most significant 

 portion : 



It is not my object to criticise the speculations of any one or 

 more of the modern scientists who have carried their investiija- 

 tions into the world of the imagination ; in fact, it could not be 

 done in a discourse so limited as this, and one only intended as 

 a prologue to the present meeting. But in order to illustrate 

 this subject of method more fully I will refer to Darwin, whose 

 name has become synonymous with progressive development and 

 natural selection, which we had thought had died out with 

 Lamarck 50 years ago. In Darwin we have one of those philoso- 

 phers whose great knowledge of animal and vegetable life is only 

 transcended by his imagination. In fact, he is to be regarded 

 more as a metaphysician with a highly wrought imagination than 

 as a scientist, although a man having a most wonderful know- 

 ledge of the facts of natural history. In England and America 

 we find scientific men of the profoundest intellects differing com- 

 pletely in regard to his logic, analogies, and deductions ; and in 

 Germany and France the same thing — in the former of these 

 countries some speculators saying " that his theory is our starting- 

 point," and in France many of her best scientific men not ranking 

 the labors of Darwin with those of pure science. Darwin takes 

 up the law of life and runs it into progressive development. In 

 doing this he seems to me to increase the embarrassment which 

 surrounds us on looking into the mysteries of creation. He is 



