FIRST WINTER MEETING— OCTOBER 8th, i 



"THE SUPREMACY OF LIFE." 

 Fbesidential Address by Me. Sidney Harvey 



901. 



The first meetinfj was held in the Beaney 

 Institute on Tuesday, October 8th, 1901. Amonjj 

 those present were the President, Mrs. and Miss 

 Harvey, Mr. W. P. Mann. Rev. W. M. RodweJI, Mr. 

 W. Cozens and Miss Cozens, Mr. and Mrs. Marsh, 

 Councillor W. H. Netherclift. Captain and Miss 

 Stead, Dr. Abbott ( Tunbridge Wells ), Miss 

 Boyden, Mrs. Summerville, Mr. and Mrs. Hus- 

 bands, Mrs. ytevens, Miss Sworn, Mr. and Mrs. 

 Argrave, Messrs. L. Ward, W. Gard, J. G. John- 

 son, W. G. Austen, etc. 



After the annual election of oflBcers, the passing 

 of the reports and other business of the annual 

 meeting. 



Mr. Sidney Harvey delivered the Presidential 

 Address, takmj:^ as bis subject " The Supremacy 

 of Life." He remarked that it was with no 

 ordinary feelings that he occupied that position 

 that night. He and some of them had been look- 

 inij forward, ia view of the circunistances, to an 

 address from their late President, Mr. Stephen 

 Horsley. That, address was in his mind when he 

 first jomed the Society, it was the subject of many 

 conversations between him and the speaker, and 

 at the time vt his last illness he had got together 

 a great deal of the subject-matter of it, and was 

 looking forward in the hope that he would be able 

 to deliver it. The subject was one that had occu- 

 pied his thoughts tor years, a very difficult subject 

 and one thsit uiauy had attempted to elucidate, 

 but in Mr. Horsley's hands he felt sure 

 a great deal of light would have been 

 thrown upon its intricacies. It was on 

 the action of petrifaction, more particularly 

 as developed in the formation of flints and the 

 preservation in those flmts of delicate animal 

 organisms. It so happened that the Canterbury 

 Museum possessed a very magnificent collection of 

 polished flints.flints containing a great manydeli- 

 cate animal formations of marvellous beauty ,and it 

 was a puzzln to their late friend how these forma- 

 tions took place, beariiigin mind the many different 

 theories which were broached as to how the flints 

 became solid, whether by water action, ur whether 

 by heat action, or in what way. Mr. Horsley had 

 prepared a givat deal of the subject matter of the 

 address to have been delivered that night.and he{the 

 speaker) bt-lieved it existed upon paper, but it had 

 not yet been found by the family. But he must 

 promise on th^ir behalf that when found it should 

 be putintoshapeandatsome future meetingof that 

 Society it should be read in his memory (hear, 

 hear). The fact of their being disappointed in 

 that addres.s that evening had somewhat modified 

 his own observations, and he would only try, in 

 the few remarks he would make, to follow on Mr. 

 Horsley's lines, and he felt that he stood in his 

 place, speaking with his voice, and using bis words. 

 At the same time it was of a different subject he 



wished to speak, but ose which was very dear to 

 their late friend's heart— "The Supremacy of 

 Life." In these days and the days that had passed, 

 the fact of the universality of death had placed to a 

 certain extent a great chtck upon any acceptance 

 of the creed which had for its subject the 

 supremacy of life. The old Roman poet ages ago 

 had sang something like this : 



*' As in the woods, dead leaves are changing with the 

 fleeting year, and the earliest fall the first, in like manner 

 do words perish with old age. and those of more recent 

 birth flash and shine like men in the times of tbeir 

 youth, but we and our works are doomed to death." 

 In these sad, but beautiful lines they had the 

 creed of past ages as regarded the relation between 

 living forms and inert matter. His object that 

 night would be to show that life was not a mere 

 subjective form, a mere transition of matter or 

 force, but that in itself it had authority and power 

 over material things, and could not only hold its 

 own, but exercised its sway in many directions, 

 and held the hope of still further permanent and 

 great developments in the future. Inlookingback 

 to those times when no life existed, and those 

 times were long, one was reminded of 

 the power of the physical forces exhibited 

 during the earth's history. They had, of 

 course, the loss of beat and the giadual 

 coalescing of the particles, followed by a liquid 

 mass still in a high state of temperature prohibi- 

 tive of even crystalline forms. Then came the 

 formation of rocks, and here again they had 

 wonderful order and system, and an impressive 

 display offender care by the Great Aitificer. How 

 long that state of things existed it wasimpossilde 

 to say, but it must have been a very long succes- 

 sion of years before it came to an end. They were at 

 length arrested, in looking back at the past history 

 of the world, by the apparition of life. Hesaidthis 

 because it was sudden and abrupt, and it was the 

 appearance of something utterly unlike anything 

 in the mineral world or anything in existence 

 before. Although it was very difficult to draw a 

 distinction absolutely between a living and a life- 

 less form, there could be no doubt in any one's 

 mind in examining the most simple form of life to 

 be able to point to it and say " this is something 

 new, this is a living thing." It was difficult to 

 conceive in what form life first appeared. No doubt 

 simple organisms came first, but where and how ? 

 We could in these days of research witness 

 beginnings. Mr. Harvey went on to speak of the 

 manner in which it was possible to maintain 

 the sterility of certain liquids, but pointed 

 out that immediately the air was permitted 

 to roach them a rapid change came 

 about, and germs of bacterial life were 

 developed. They had there an astonishing 

 development of life so rapid and so abundant 

 that there was nothing like it in the world. He 



