24 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



Fungi are the strenuous competitors of all other organisms from 

 the highest to the lowest, whether animal or plant ; and between 

 what organisms is the struggle more keen than between the 

 Bacterium and Man ? Nor must it be forgotten that the com- 

 petition between higher and lower forms, if not keen now, was at 

 its keenest when the differences between them were still slight. 

 These questions cannot yet be regarded as satisfactorily disposed of. 



But even if it be admitted that higher organization is an 

 advantage, the question as to the cause of variation in the higher 

 direction still remains. It is sometimes referred to external con- 

 ditions, as, for instance, by Mr. Herbert Spencer, who has asserted 

 that " the direct action of the medium was the primordial factor of 

 organic evolution." It is an obvious criticism that the effect of 

 external conditions must depend upon the capacity of the organism 

 to respond to them. External conditions can act only as an 

 exciting cause of evolution, just as the pulling of a rifle-trigger is 

 the exciting cause of the explosion of the cartridge. The exciting 

 cause contributes nothing to the explosive power of the cartridge 

 in the one case, or to the evolutionary capacity of the protoplasm 

 in the other : it only calls them into action. The " primordial 

 factor " is to be sought in living matter itself. 



The fact that organic evolution should have proceeded as far as 

 it has within such limits of time as may reasonably be allowed, 

 admits, to my own mind, of no other interpretation than that 

 variation is not indeterminate ; but that, as Lamarck and Naegeli 

 have urged, there must exist in living matter a certain inherent 

 tendency or bias in favour of variation in the higher direction. It 

 is this tendency or bias that I venture to regard as the true 

 " primordial factor." 



However, it is not my intention today to propound a theory of 

 evolution. All that I desire to do is to indicate the real inwardness 

 of the labours of the naturalist : to point out that the accumulation 

 of facts concerning living organisms is not an end in itself, but a 

 means to the end of fully and rightly comprehending them. Let 

 us not forget that the last epoch-making stride in this direction 

 was taken at a meeting of this Society, when the doctrine of 

 Natural Selection was announced : let it be our not unworthy 

 ambition that our Society shall be as closely identified with future 

 advance ! ' 



Sir Joseph Hookee then moved : — •" That the thanks of the 

 Society be given to the President for his excellent Address, and 

 that he be requested to allow it to be printed and circulated 

 amongst the Fellows," which, after being seconded by Dr. Gtunxhee, 

 was unanimously carried. 



The Linnean Grold Medal was then awarded to Prof. Rudolph 

 Albert yon Kollikee, F.M.L.S., and received on his behalf by 

 his former pupil. Sir Michael Fostee, K.C.B., who made a 

 suitable acknowledcrment. 



