1809.] Geology and Palseontology. 443 



to February 24, 1869, The income expected this year (1869) 

 amounts to 2072Z. 16s., and expenditure to 1893Z., leaving a 

 balance in favour of the {Society of YJ21. 16s. ; whilst the funded 

 property amounts to 4860Z. 14s. M., exclusive of trust-fund. We 

 may, from the above statement, safely congratulate this learned 

 body upon its healthy financial condition. The President (Prof. 

 Huxley) takes, as the text for his Anniversary Address, the subject 

 matter of Sir Wilham Thomson's article " On Geological Time," 

 ah'eady briefly epitomized in this present Chronicle. 



Commencing with a brief review of the various hnes of thought 

 which a study of geology has developed, the author divides them into 

 three classes — Catastrophists, Uniformitarians, and Evolutionists; 

 with the two former classes of thinkers we were well acquainted, 

 but the third is a new class, defined as those who " embrace in one 

 stupendous analogy the growth of a solar system from molecular 

 chaos, the shaping of the earth * * * to its present fonn, and 

 the development of a living being from the shapeless mass of 

 protoplasm we term a germ." 



Assuming that Sir W. Thomson is correct in asserting that life 

 on the earth must be limited to 100 million years. Professor 

 Huxley shows that the whole thickness of stratified rocks, taken at 

 100,000 feet, or about 56| miles, could have been formed within 

 that period of time if only ywo^ of a foot or ^V of an inch of 

 sediment were deposited annually. 



He points out that although so much stress is laid by Sir W. 

 Thomson on retardation, yet " it is not absolutely certain, after all, 

 whether the moon's mean motion is undergoing acceleration, or 

 the earth's rotation retardation ; and yet this is the key to the 

 whole position." " If the rapidity of the earth's rotation is dimi- 

 nishing, it is not certain how much of that retardation is due to 

 tidal friction, how much to meteors, how much to possible excess 

 of melting over accumulation of polar ice during the period covered 

 by observation, which amounts, at the outside, to not more than 

 2600 years." 



One of the most acute and telHng remarks in the address is 

 that contained in the following paragraph : — 



"I do not presume to throw the slightest doubt upon the 

 accuracy of any of the calculations made by such distinguished 

 mathematicians as those who have made the suggestions I have 

 cited. On the contrary, it is necessary to my argument to assume 

 that they are all correct. But I desire to point out that this seems 

 to be one of the many cases in which the admitted accuracy of 

 mathematical processes is allowed to throw a wholly inadmissible 

 appearance of authority over the results obtained by them. Mathe- 

 matics may be compared to a mill of exquisite workmanship, which 

 grinds you stufi" of any degree of fineness ; but, nevertheless, what 



VOL. VI. 2 H 



