11 
by Huxley and his school, cannot be true. (2) That spontaneous 
generation has never been known to occur. (3) That it is against 
all the ascertained analogy of nature to suppose that it ever has 
occurred. (+) Thatif spontaneous generation has not occurred, it 
must be admitted that a supernatural act originated life in the 
primordial cell or cells. (5) That the true doctrine of evolution, 
as held by Huxley, cannot be true unless some bridge can be found 
to span the chasm between the living and the non-living. (6) That 
the present knowledge furnish us with no such bridge. Again, it 
was safe to say that evolutionists conceded that natural selection 
could not take leaps, and, therefore, a multitude of links must 
have existed between man and the highes apes; that after a 
diligent search of nearly forty years for traces of these missing 
links, none had been found ; that in spite of the geological record, 
the destruction of these relics without traces is amazing, and that 
their absence leaves the argument for evolution weaker where it 
should be stronger; that the oldest human fossils exhibited in 
essential characteristics no approach to the ape type. The speaker 
then went on to say that Mr. Walton had mentioned that the brain 
of the ape was similar to the brain of a man, but there was an 
enormous difference between the two; the brain of the man being 
much the heaviest. He could alsoname a few other characteristics, 
which he was glad to say placed them at a great distance from the 
ape. In conclusion, Dr. Tyson said his opinion was that in the 
first stage a certain number of creatures were created, man being 
amongst the number, although he was in a lower state than he was 
at present, and that from these creations had sprung upwards and 
downwards all the avimals that had existed or were existing. 
The Rev. J. Burgess denied that Professor Huxley was a believer 
in spontaneous generation, and, in proof of this, quoted from an 
essay written in 1860. 
Mr. Ullyett said he would be disposed to contradict all the points 
mentioned by Dr. Tyson. 
The Chairman said ‘he thought Dr. Tyson had put up a dummy 
_ for the purpose of knocking it down again. 
__ Mr. Smurthwaite said he did not believe in the views propounded 
by Darwin. Referring to the quotation which had made from the 
“Origin of Species,” about the theory giving a grandeur to life, 
he said that might be so; but after all, it was not science, and did 
_ not prove anything. The theological argument had been referred 
to, but he thought that should be allowed to remain in abeyance. 
As had been remarked, Darwin put his theory before them modestly 
and quietly, and he kept telling them, as if for fear they would 
embrace the idea, that was only a theory. He thought Professor 
Huxley said the theory was not proven. 
