614 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



adaptation" appears to me to describe the process of develop- 

 ment better than Mivart's terms, but that need not be dis- 

 cussed now. In cattle the same reasoning applies. We all 

 know the differences between the Shorthorns, Ayrshire, Devon, 

 Black Angus, Dutch, Guernsey, Alderney, &c. ; but who can 

 say how many other varieties exist in any one of these breeds, 

 which, by careful breeding and selection, can be produced ? To 

 my mind, the varieties are limitless, owing to the law that no 

 two things in nature are exactly alike. Moreover, the dif- 

 ferences in varieties of cattle often depend upon differences in 

 food-supply. Thus Black Angus is better suited than other 

 breeds for poor pasture and bleak rough hills. In men the 

 same reasoning applies. We have the Malay, the Negro, the 

 Caucasian, the Chinese, the Australian, each with their well- 

 known and distinct varieties. And these varieties (fixed and 

 distinct ages before this planet was born) occupy climates 

 suitable to them, or adapt themselves readily to any fairly 

 habitable climate. But the power of divergence in each 

 variety is so remarkable that we quite wonder when we say 

 that any two English persons out of thirty-five millions are 

 alike. Therefore it is quite possible to produce thirty-five 

 million different and distinct types of English men and 

 women, which reasoning applies to all the other races of 

 men, even to the Negro. We can therefore see how admirably 

 fitted humanity is to adapt itself by change to the require- 

 ments and conditions of a million planets. I think I am en- 

 titled to consider that there are other planets exactly the 

 same as this earth, not only from astronomical research (the 

 continents and seas of Mars, ex. gra.) and spectrum analysis, 

 but also from meteoric iron being found exactly similar to 

 native iron in Greenland and North America. As many mil- 

 lions of meteorites doubtless fall within this earth's atmo- 

 sphere every week, if not every day, from the size of a 

 grain of sand upwards, and as they contain nickel, phosphides, 

 and other silicates exactly like we have here, I think it is 

 beyond an assumption for me to say that there are other 

 planets existing under exactly similar conditions to this earth. 

 But, in order to arrive at truth, and to explain my theory, I ask 

 to be allowed to assume 'that there are other habitable planets, 

 so that from this wider field of analogy we may gain an in- 

 sight into the true origin of and reason for the different species 

 we have here. In a late lecture. Sir Eobert Ball, F.E.S., 

 stated that " he was of the firm belief that life existed upon the 

 planet Mars because of the fact that under almost any con- 

 ditions of existence on this earth — in the burning deserts, 

 amidst the polar ice, deep down in the sunless depths of the 

 ocean-^life was found accommodated to what surrounded it." 

 In saying this Sir E. Ball only exemplifies what I mean by 



