30 



faithful account of Aubrey's custom, minus what I admit is its most dubious point, 

 the central figure, the chief actor. "Previous to a funeral," he writes, "it was cus- 

 tomary when the corpse was brought to the house and laid upon the bier, for the next 

 of kin, be it widow, mother, sister or daughter (for it must be a female), to give 

 over the coffin white loaves in a great dish, and sometimes a cheese with a piece 

 of money stuck in it, to certain poor persons ; after which, they present in the 

 same manner a cup of drink, and require the persons to drink a little of it imme- 

 diately." It will be observed that here then is no human scapegoat, who, accord- 

 ing to Aubrey, took for a consideration the sins of the defunct upon him, and 

 thus being looked upon as a social pariah, for whom nothing was too bad, disap- 

 peared, as quickly as was possible, amidst the kicks, cuffs, and blows of the lookers 

 on, into the outer wUdemess, from which he would only emerge again on a 

 similar occasion. In concluding my paper with a notice of this singular custom, 

 I trust that I shall not have introduced a dismal element in this meeting, or 

 evinced any desire to return to what I for one believe to have been a custom of 

 our forefathers, happily now out of date and obsolete. 



MR. RANKIN'S PAPER. 



"the niPFICDLTIES OP ESTIMATING GEOLOGICAL TIME." 



In the following paper or essay upon the difficulties of estimating Geological 

 periods of time, I am well aware that to most of my hearers no new facts will be 

 given, and perhaps no new ideas ; but it is possible that there may be some 

 present who have not given this subject so much thought and attention as it 

 deserves, and whose minds therefore may be open to receive new impressions 

 respecting it ; and it is with the hope of causing thoughtful students of this 

 branch of science to pause, and consider the great difficulties of laying down any 

 absolute i-ules or dogmatic precepts upon this subject, that I have been chiefly 

 induced to attempt this short paper. At the very outset I feel bound to say that 

 I know that this paper will be a disappointing one, for I fear that I shall only be 

 able to show you the uncertainty of any of our present meth(jds of estimating 

 time, without, as an equivalent, being able to suggest to you any better methods. 

 And, first of all, let us for a few moments enquire what light is thrown upon this 

 subject by astronomical facts and theories. It is now, I believe, pretty generally 

 admitted by astronomers, that this earth, along with other members of our solar 

 system and the other heavenly bodies, had a nebulous origin, and that this planet 

 on which we novi^ dwell has arrived at its present condition by processes of con- 

 traction, accretion, and cooling down. It is also probable that before this earth 

 assumed any solid or semi-solid form, the processes of contraction and accretion 

 were far more rapid than they have been since, but when we ask astronomers to 

 give us some idea of the period of time occupied by our earth while it was assum- 

 ing something of its present configuration, and long before it became an orb 



