PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



ROYAL PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 



SESSION CXXIX. 



Wednesday, 15th Novemher 1899. — Benj. N. Peach, F.E.S., 

 F.G.S., President, in the Chair. 



Dr Egbert Munro, M.A., Vice-President, delivered 

 the following opening address, entitled " Stray Thoughts 

 on the Theory of Organic Evolution, more especially as 

 applied to Man": — 



As senior Vice-President of this Society, the customary 

 duty of delivering the opening address devolves upon me. 

 In a Society whose fellows are chiefly engaged in special 

 studies, ranging over the wide domain of natural science, 

 this custom has many advantages, not the least among them 

 being the opportunity it gives of ventilating, m a discursive 

 manner, some of the more general and speculative opinions 

 current in the scientific world. While fully recognising 

 that, in the present advanced state of knowledge both in 

 physics and biology, it is scarcely possible for any student 

 to win laurels as an original investigator in either of these 

 departments, without devoting the larger portion of his time 

 and energies to some restricted groove of research, we must 

 not forget that the attainment of this desirable object is 

 greatly facilitated by keeping himself au courant with the 

 more salient discoveries in the collateral sciences. On 

 scanning the wide field before me with the view of selecting 

 a subject suitable for the present occasion, many topics 



VOL. XIV. T 



