6 



birds, toothed and Imiiy feathered, such as 

 the archfpopteryx and pterodactyl, whose 

 earliest aucestors shew uo variation from 

 their latest descendants. Perhaps at this 

 period came the whale, so like a fish and 

 yet not a tlsh at all — but a warm-blooded 

 mammal (heat 104 deg. Fahrenheit), with 

 horizontal instead of perpendicular tail, 

 with three skins instead of scales, and with 

 the power of suckling- and holding- in its 

 five-fingered flipper its single calf — as like 

 a fish and as different as a man is like and 

 yet unlike a monkey I" (Read Gen. i., 20-23.) 

 This corresponded to what scientists call the 

 Palaeozoic and Mesozoic periods. Now 

 comes what Dr. Wallace calls an inexplic- 

 able break — a gfap in the records. We pass 

 to the sixth day, when we come upon a 

 new creation. In this Caenozoic period 

 come, in succession of creative swarms, the 

 whole tribe of herbivorous followed by car- 

 nivorous mammalia, gradually improving- 

 in intelligence, yet highly differentiated 

 specific characters from first to last; and 

 which, while the tertiary age is closing and 

 the quaternary is succeeding, culminates in 

 man, with whom creation ceases, and God's 

 rest from creating new types begins. (Read 

 Gen. i., 24-27; ii., 1-2.) Of man we have 

 discovered one still doubtful series of relics, 

 the Java skull, having three teeth, a lower 

 jaw, and a left thigh bone 50ft. apart; also 

 one skull with minute teeth in a large 

 jaw (Jionio heidelbergensis), very like that 



of (he present aborigines of Australia; and 

 a whole series of skeletons ranging between 

 this type and modern European types, 

 chiefly lixcd by the discoveries at Spy, 

 Neanderthal, and Engis, but which are all 

 admitted to be very doubtfully unlike quite 

 modern types of African, Australian, and 

 Esquimaux man. A single discovery of a 

 new " primate," said Prof. Schwalbe, might 

 upset our evolution theory. The latest dis- 

 covery at Ipswich (September, 1911), the 

 oldest find on record, has completely upset 

 the theory of any evolution of man. As we 

 survey these wonderful facts of the laws of 

 nature, implying a lawgiver, and of adap- 

 tation and contrivance and order implying 

 design, we ca-n truly say with Voltaire: 

 "If there was not a God we should have 

 bad to have invented Him." And when wo 

 observe the many concurrent possibilities in 

 nature that might upset or destroy the deli- 

 cacy of these several organisms we may get 

 new comfort from the thought that we are 

 of more value than many sparrows, that not 

 a sparrow falls to the ground without our 

 Father, and that the very hairs of our head 

 are all numbered. (^Applause.) 



A discussion followed, when the lecture 

 was severely criticised by Mr. W. T. 

 Leeming, M.Sc, Miss Widdison, B.Sc. Mr. 

 A. Lauder, F.R.Met.S., Mr. W. Cozens, and 

 others, who all strongly dissented from the 

 views expressed by the lecturer. 



'ANCIENT EOME."— By Mr. THOMAS UNDERHILL. 



At the meeting on the 27th November 

 last, an illustrated lecture on Ancient Rome 

 was given by Mr. Thomas TJuderhill. 



In the course of his lecture, Mr. Underbill 

 said : Modern Rome to-day stands 30 feet 

 above Ancient Rome, and it is this 

 covering up of the ruins that has 

 preserved so much of the old build- 

 ings. When an Emperor erected a 

 new building he made no attempt t« clear 

 the ground but levelled it with earth; and 

 therefore when excavating, the remains of 

 two or three different periods were found on 

 the same site. The building of the Ancient 

 Citv was spread over a period of years : 

 portions of the wall enclosing the first City, 

 and composed of large blocks of hard 

 stone, still exist. The Roman Forum, 

 which was the first market place, is 

 situated in a valley, with the Palatine 

 and the Capitoline on two of its sides. As 

 the Empire grew the Forum became the 

 centre of the religious and civil life of the 

 Romans, for whose accommodation temples 

 and other striictures were erected. At the 



time of Julius Caesar's death it must have 

 presented a wonderful collection of build- 

 ings. Viewing the Forum from the Capitol- 

 ine. one obtained an idea of the position 

 of the buildings.. At their feet to the right 

 was the Basilica Julia, built B.C. 46 on the 

 site of an earlier Basilica by Julius Caesar, 

 but destroyed by fire several times. It was 

 the great Court of Appeal. Further on 

 to the right were the remains of the-Temple 

 of Castor and Pollux, and the Temple of 

 Vesta with the Palace of the Vestals. The 

 buildings on the other side of the Forum 

 are partly buried beneath more modern 

 erections. Of the more important he 

 mentioned the remains of the Senate-house 

 (Curia Julia), re-built by Ccesar, and then 

 Domitian; the Basilica .3]milia, erected B.C. 

 179, but restored several times; and on the 

 east side of the Forum the substructions of 

 the Temple of Julius Caesar, which marks 

 the spot where Caesar's body was burnt when 

 Antony had excited the populace with his 

 eloquence. The lecturer then described 

 some of the ruins in a more detailed manner. 



