640 Proceedings. 



have had the ojpportunity of learning, from Mr. Hudson's 

 excellent " Manual of New Zealand Entomology," that these 

 beetles have whigs, by means of which they are known to 

 migrate from one piece of water to another. This fact — then 

 unknown to me — explains the occurrence to some extent, 

 although it still is very wonderful that the beetles should 

 have migrated from the mainland to this little tank, for there 

 are no pools or streams on the island. How did they discover 

 the existence of the tank ? It was an unfortunate discovery 

 for them, for they were soon boiled to death when the con- 

 denser began to be used. 



Evolution. 

 In connection with these beetles I would refer to one pas- 

 sage in the Manual, and employ it as my text in what I wish 

 to say on evolution, as it is in accordance with the theories 

 of evolution which are now very generally accepted. The 

 passage I refer to is at page 23, where this swimming-beetle is 

 said to be " only what a ground-beetle might naturally become 

 if forced to lead an aquatic existence." Now, my imperfect 

 observation leads me to believe that any ground-beetle now 

 forced to lead an aquatic existence — i.e., being put into water 

 — will not become a sunmming -beetle, but, if it cannot get out, 

 will inevitably become a dead beetle. This, however, is not 

 in accordance with the ultra-evolutionist theories of the day, 

 which assume, in the words of Mr. Eomanes, that " hereditary 

 characters admit of being slowly modified whenever their 

 modification will render an organism better suited to a change 

 in its conditions of life." I am not prepared to say, much less 

 to prove, that this is not true, or, rather, that it may not have 

 been true at earlier periods of the world's history ; but I do 

 afiirm that this statement is an hypothesis which has not 

 hitherto been confirmed by facts, and my position is that, as 

 true scientists, we are bound to separate hypotheses which 

 have not been confirmed by facts from those which have been 

 so confirmed. When Mr. Eomanes quietly asserts that 

 whales and porpoises were originally " terrestrial quadrupeds of 

 some kind, which gradually became more and more aquatic in 

 their habits," and that the changes in their conditions of life 

 affected first their skin, claws, and teeth, then their bones 

 and muscles, and general form, my faith in this teaching is 

 too weak, my imagination too sluggish, and my hold on the 

 facts of nature too strong, to allow me to accept this state- 

 ment without proof. Indeed, were I convinced of the fact that 

 such changes do take place, or have taken place in the past, 

 I should have expected that water -mammals would have 

 changed into land-mammals rather than the reverse, as all 

 palseoutological evidence shows that the waters were peopled 



