196 NOTICES OF THE MEETINGS [May 7, 
C. The genus, in whatever degree of extension we use the 
term, so long as we apply it to an assemblage of species inti- 
mately related to each other in common and important features 
of organization, appears distinctly to exhibit the phenomenon of 
centralization in both time and space, though with a difference, 
since it would seem that each genus has a unique centre or area of 
development in time, but in geographical space may present more 
centres than one. 
a. An individual is a positive reality. 
b. A species is a relative reality. 
ec. A genus is an abstraction—an idea—but an idea im- 
pressed on nature and not arbitrarily dependent on man’s con- 
ceptions. 
a. An individual is one. 
8. Aspecies consists of many resulting from one. 
y. A genus consists of more or fewer of these manies resulting 
from one linked together not by a relationship of descent but by 
an affinity dependent on a divine idea. 
And, lastly, 
a. An individual cannot manifest itself in two places at once ; 
it has no extension in space; its relations are entirely with dime, 
but the possible duration of its existence is regulated by the law 
of its inherent vitality. 
b. A species has correspondent and exactly analogous relations 
with time and space,— the duration of its existence as well as its 
geographical extension is entirely regulated by physical conditions. 
c. A genus has dissimilar or only partially comparable relations 
with time and space, and occupies areas in both having only 
partial relations to physical conditions. 
The investigation of these distinctions and relations form the 
subject of a great chapter in the Philosophy of Natural History. 
That Philosophy contemplates the laws that regulate the manifesta- 
tion of life exhibited in organized nature and their dependence upon 
and connection with the inorganic world and its phenomena. None 
teaches more emphatically the difficulties with which man’s mind 
must contend when attempting to comprehend the wisdom em- 
bodied in the universe, and none holds out a more cheering 
prospect of future discovery in fresh and unexpected fields of 
delightful research. 
[E. F.] 
In the Library were exhibited : — 
Several Cases of Moths, Butterflies, and Beetles, — and various Rep- 
tiles, from the Zoological Society. 
Specimens of Electro-Plate, in Silver, Bronze, &c. [Exhibited by 
Messrs. Elkingtons. ] 
