528 Meeting of the British Association. [ Oct., 
sion, atavism, and inheritance, as mere structural accidents, and 
there must be some reason for one class of facts as well as the other, 
and, whatever the explanation might be, the hand of God was 
equally visible and equally essential in all. They could not now 
refer every indication of thought and reasoning beyond the pale of 
humanity to blind instinct, as was once the fashion, from a fear of 
the inferences which might be made. Should any one, however, 
be still afraid of any theory like that before them, he would suggest 
that Man was represented in Scripture as differing from the other 
members of the animal world by possessing a Spirit as well as a 
reasoning Mind. The distinction between psyche and pnewma, 
which was recognized by the Germans in their familiar words seele 
and geist, but which we had no words in our own language to 
express properly,—or, in other terms, between mere mental powers, 
which the rest of the creation possessed in greater or less degree 
in common with mankind, and an immortal spirit,—if rightly 
weighed, would, perhaps, lead some to look upon the matter with 
less fear and prejudice. Nothing could be more unfair and unwise 
than to stamp at once this and cognate speculations with the charge 
of irreligion. Of this, however, he felt assured, that the members 
of the Association would unite with him in bidding its great and 
conscientious author God speed, and join in expressing a hope that 
his health might be preserved, to enrich science with the results of 
his great powers of mind and unwearied observation. 
Of Zoological papers, we must notice first Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys’ 
“ Dredging Report.” It is a matter for much regret that the 
smaller income of the Association this year has rendered it necessary 
to withhold any further large grants for dredging at present. This 
year Mr. Jeffreys dredged off the Shetlands, havmg very bad 
weather ; he, however, made some interesting discoveries. In this 
report he summarized the results of five years’ dredging on these 
coasts. As a rule, he found that the mollusca of northern seas 
were much larger than the same species occurring in southern 
seas. He did not consider that the various zones of depth usually 
adopted by naturalists were of any real value. ‘Two, he considered, 
were sufficient besides the abyssal or marine, namely, the littoral 
and the submarine. ‘The various animals dredged other than 
mollusca had been entrusted to other naturalists for examination, 
and their reports in previons years showed how many new and 
interesting forms had been thus added to science. 
In a paper “On Shetland Sponges,” the Rev. A. M. Norman 
described and exhibited a vast number of the forms of Sponges 
dredged by Mr. Jeffreys. One of these was especially mteresting 
from its peculiar form and history. Three years since when 
dredging off Shetland, they had brought up long tube-like bits of 
