9 



Mr. Leeming-, M.Sc, said he hardly 

 thought it would be fair to continue the 

 discussion of last time because Mr. Clarke 

 ■was not there. He wished he had been 

 present that evening. It seemed to hiin 

 that great difficulties had been hinted at, 

 and one occurred to him in the diagram of 

 the origin of the nebula. It showed two 

 worlds coming into collision, and what Mr. 

 Clarke would have wanted to know would 

 be the origin of those worlds. Another 

 great difficulty which must appeal to the 

 sceptic was that we now reduced matter to 

 the electrons. Whatever the theory oi the 

 electrons was, the difficulty that struck the 

 sceptic was " What is the origin of the 

 energy that these electrons possess ? ' ' 

 These were great questions. He thought 

 the time would come when every difficulty 

 would be cai>able of solution. We had seen 

 60 many wonderful things in our time that 

 even the pessimist must submit that men 

 would be able to solve what were now known 

 as impossible difficulties. After they had 

 got over the origin of the electrons the rest 

 was quite easy to him. He could not see 

 why the combination of the electrons should 

 not be changed directly into life. He saw 

 no difficulty whatever in the clwnge of what 

 we now called dead to what was living, 

 because it seemed to him that nothing was 

 dead. The distinction between dead and 

 living matter was merely an artificial one. 

 He saw no difficulty whatever in accepting 

 Schafer's theory. He thought it was only 

 the lack of knowledge in man that prevented 

 him from producing living matter at the 

 present time. 



Mr. Lander said that if we knew what 

 was the solution of the problem ** What 

 is the origin of energy?" then ho coulfj 

 agree with Mr. Leeming, but we were in 

 total ignorance of these matters. 



Councillor Johnson thought that Mr. 

 Leeming was a little mistaken in his idea 

 that we human Ix-ings would know sufficient 

 to enable us to unravel this great question 

 of the origin of life. For his own part, ho 

 thought that we were finite. There was a 

 limit to our intelligence, even if we lived 

 for many more million years. Take space, 

 for instance. Could they imagine the limits 

 of space? It dazed them to think of it. 

 He thought that that showed our own little 

 power as much as anything. He did not 

 think that we should ever, in our little life, 

 be able to solve the origin of life. 



Mr. Rosseter next remarked that all the 

 while we did not know why there should be 

 a difference between the fat globules and 

 plasmic substance the origin of life would 

 not be known. 



Dr. Wills, in congratulating and thank- 

 ing Mr. Lander for his lecture, said that he 

 believed the origin of life would remain in 

 tlie hands of the Deity. He reminded thera 

 that those who were trying to work out 

 problems of that kind must not be preju- 

 diced. Ho thought the questions they had 

 had that night should be thrashed out care- 

 fully. Directly we had religioiis prejudice 

 coming into science we did no good to 

 science and no good to religion. The only 

 petition we could take up at present was 

 the learner's. Forty years ago the man 

 who said he could send messages by wireless 

 telegraphy would have been burnt alive al- 

 mo:?t. He was sure they would thank Mr. 

 Lander with him for the lecture, and also 

 the discussion that he had opened. 



Mr. Lander, in reply, s-aid that if only 

 he had lodged the spirit of enquiry he did 

 not think the lecture had been in vain. 



Mr. Edward Wottou, junior. Miss Wid- 

 dison, B.Sc, and one or two other ladies 

 also took part in the discussion. 



SHOULD BOARDS OF GUARDIANS BE ABOLISHED? 



: o : 



ADDRESS BY COUNCILLOR J. G. B. STONE. 



Mr. A. Lauder presided at the meeting 

 of the East Kent Scientific Society held at 

 the Beaney Institute on the 22nd Jauiiary, 

 the president of the Society, Dr. 

 Graham Wills, being unavoidably al> 

 sent. He mentioned that for the 

 next meeting, to be held on February 

 3, the Society had received an invi- 

 tation from the Canterbury Camera 

 Club to an illustrated lecture to be held in 

 Gaywoods' Rooms. Canterbury. Mr. Lan- 

 der went on to introduce the Deputy Mayor. 

 Councillor Stone, who, he said, was to speak 

 to them that evening on the subject, 

 " Should Boards of Guardians be abol- 

 ished?" Mr. Stone was the Chairman of 

 the Canterbury Guardians, and had made a 

 special study of Poor Law matters. 



Councillor Stone said he did not attend 

 there in the whited sheet of repentance on 

 behalf of the authority to which he be- 

 longed, and, on the other hand, it was not 

 his intention to use forcible arguments in 

 defending them. To his mind, it rested 

 with those who sought to alK>lish Boards of 

 Guardians to prove why they should be 

 abolished, and also to show what kind of 

 authority should be set up instead. He 

 thought that the fairest way of dealing with 

 this subject would be to take a survev of 

 the work of Boards of Guardians, and hav- 

 ing heard the facts which he would put 

 before them, he felt convinced that in com- 

 mon honesty they would agree that, com- 

 pared with every other authority, the 

 Guardians had rendered, not onlv signal 



