[parks] presidential ADDRESS 19 



In this connection it is v/orthy of note that "The Origin of Species" 

 appeared in 1859 and that Asa Gray, the botanist, was one of the first 

 Americans to endorse Darwin's views. The result was soon seen in 

 palaeontology in the work of Alpheus Hyatt and Beecher. There 

 seems to have been little or no response to the new ideas on the part 

 of Billings or Whiteaves: on the other hand, Matthew accepted evolu- 

 tion with alacrity. In a recent letter to the writer, Dr. Matthew 

 states, "I was an evolutionist before I saw any of Darwin's books. 

 See my article re development of the trilobites sent to the Malacolo- 

 gical Society of Belgium, or later, the article on the trilobites of 

 Long Island, Kennebecasis river." 



Henry Alleyne Nicholson was Professor of Natural History in 

 the University of Toronto in the early Seventies. He was essentially 

 a palaeontologist and his outstanding Canadian work is the "Report 

 on the Palaeontology of the Province of Ontario," which appeared in 

 two parts, the letter of transmittal of the first dated Toronto, October, . 

 1873, and of the second, Newcastle-on-Tyne, October, 1874. Nichol- 

 son also contributed to scientific journals several papers dealing with 

 Canadian and American palaeontology. 



With Nicholson worked Dr. George J. Hinde, who later became 

 the great English authority on fossil sponges. His chief Canadian 

 Vv'ork was the description of the conodonts and annelid teeth from the 

 Ordovician strata of Toronto. 



After Hinde and Nicholson stratigraphie geology and palaeon- 

 tology fell to a position of slight relative importance at Toronto. 

 Professor E. J. Chapman, who followed Nicholson as Professor of 

 Geology and Mineralogy, was essentially a mineralogist, assayer, and 

 economic geologist. His publications were largely mineralogical and 

 economic, but he was also the author of certain text-books dealing 

 with stratigraphie geology. In palaeontology he will be remembered 

 chiefly as the discoverer of Ogygites canadensis, now regarded as the 

 type fossil of the Collingwood formation. Professor Chapman 

 retired at "an advanced age in 1895. 



During part of the period under review Professor James Fowler 

 was Professor of Natural History at Queen's University and was 

 charged with the teaching of geology: he was essentially a botanist 

 and not greatly interested in the subject of stratigraphy. The School 

 of Mines was established in 1893 with W. G. Miller, first as lecturer 

 in, and afterwards. Professor of Geology. Dr. Miller's interest has 

 been directed more particularly towards economic and Pre-Cambrian 

 geology. 



