PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 19 
can prove that carbon existed in the Archean Era, before 
life appeared, and that gold, iron, and copper existed long 
before man, we must also allow that the results of evolution 
had been foreseen and provided for. 
_ Next, let us examine the principal concatenation of events 
which led up to the production of civilised man. The 
human hand and foot were developed from organs adapted 
for climbing trees, and it was necessary that the early pri- 
mates should take to trees at once before their hmbs became 
specialised for ‘terrestrial life. To induce them to climb 
trees, fruit and birds must have been in existence, for suc- 
culent fruits have been developed through the agency of 
birds. So that the previous existence of birds and flower- 
ing plants, which alone form succulent fruits, was necessary 
for the development of the hand. Again, man could not 
have attained civilisation if he had not been able to domesti- 
cate animals and to cultivate food-plants. Ruminant mam~ 
malia were, therefore, required, and these can only exist in 
large flocks through the peculiar growth of the leaves of 
grasses on which they feed. Most leaves grow very rapidly 
after the bursting of the bud, and then cease to grow alto- 
gether. The consequence is that if the leaves of one of thes 
plants are continuously cut, or pulled off, they are not repro. 
duced, and the plant dies. But, in the grasses and their 
allies, the leaves continue to grow at their bases all through 
life; so long as the temperature and moisture of the soil are 
favourable, and cutting and biting off their ends does the 
plant good, instead of harm, for it exposes the newly-grown 
parts of the leaves to the sun. Thus, large herds of .nimals 
are enabled to live together without destroying the vegeta- 
tion; and it was this that tempted primeval man to leave 
the forest and live on the open land. 
Now, hoofed mammals required a long time for their de- 
velopment, and if they had not heen a very early branch of 
the eutherian stock, they would not have been ready for 
man to domesticate at the close of the Pleistocene Period. 
We have, thus, no less than five different groups of plants 
and animals which must precede man in a certain order, to 
allow the possibility of human civilisation. Phanerogamous 
trees and birds must precede the earliest primates. Grasses 
and ruminants must follow; yet they, also, must precede 
man. Now, we find that this is*just the order in which they 
did appear. Phanerogamous trees are known first in the 
Carboniferous Period; mammals in the Lower Jurassic; 
birds in the Upper Jurassic; the primates and primitive 
hoofed mammals in the Lower Eocene ; grasses in the O.igo- 
cene ; ruminants in the Miocene; and man in the Pliocene. 
