ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE. 



41 



the nature and the destiny of the soul of man. 

 And the old learning no longer contests the 

 share in education which is claimed by the new, 

 or is blind to the supreme influence which natu- 

 ral knowledge is exercising in molding the hu- 

 man mind." Passing directly to his chosen 

 theme instead of attempting to review in all its 

 interesting detail the history of a particular sci- 

 ence, he preferred to call " attention to the con- 

 dition in which we stand toward three or four of 

 the most important physical questions which it 

 j has been the effort of the last century to solve." 

 Of these scientific enigmas he first took up the 

 nature and origin of what are called elements as 

 being the most notable. " It is not, perhaps, 

 easy to give a precise logical reason for the feel- 

 ing that the existence of our 65 elements is a 

 strange anomaly and conceals some" much sim- 

 pler state of facts ; but the conviction is irre- 

 sistible. We can not conceive, on any possible 

 doctrine of cosmogony, how these 65 elements 

 came into existence." Research in laboratories 

 fails to afford the slightest foundation for the the- 

 ory that the elements consist of hydrogen. Spec- 

 tral analysis has enabled us to measure the speed 

 with which clouds of hydrogen course across the 

 surface of the sun. Also we have learned from 

 it the pace at which the stars approach or recede 

 from our planet, but "it has left us as ignorant 

 as ever as to the nature of the capricious differ- 

 ences which separate the atoms from each other 

 or the cause to which those differences are due."- 

 Mendeleeff's discovery of the periodic laws, which 

 is now universally accepted, has rather thickened 

 than dissipated the mystery which hangs over 

 the elements. The boundary of our knowledge 

 in this direction remains where it was many 

 centuries ago. A second of these unsolved rid- 

 dles concerns ether, which may be described as a 

 half-discovered entity. The brilliant researches 

 of Maxwell, of Herz, and of Lord Kelvin have 

 demonstrated certain relations between ether 

 and electricity, but our knowledge of ether is in 

 a very rudimentary condition. " It has no known 

 qualities except one, and that quality is in the 

 highest degree anomalous and inscrutable. The 

 extended conception which enables us to recog- 

 nize ethereal waves in the vibrations of electrici- 

 ty has added infinite attraction to the study of 

 those waves, but it carries its own difficulties 

 with it. It is not easy to fit in the theory of 

 electrical ether waves with the phenomena of 

 positive and negative electricity. As to the true 

 significance and cause of those counteracting 

 and complementary forces to which we give the 

 provisional names of negative and positive, we 

 know about as much as Franklin knew a cen- 

 tury and a half ago." A more striking but more 

 obvious illustration still of these scientific enig- 

 mas is life animal and vegetable life. Biology 

 has been exceptionally active and successful 

 during the last half century. Its triumphs have 

 been brilliant, and they have been rich enough 

 not only in immediate result, but in the promise 

 of future advance, yet they give at present no 

 hope of penetrating' the great central mystery. 

 The advances made in antiseptic surgery by 

 Lister, and the magnificent researches of Pasteur, 

 have added greatly to our knowledge, but " cer- 

 tainly the most conspfcuous event in the annals 

 of the last half century has been the publication 



of Mr. Darwin's work on the 'Origin of Spe- 

 cies,' which appeared in 1859." The depth of 

 the impression which it made on scientific 

 thought, and even on the general opinion of the 

 world, and its momentous effect can hardly be 

 overestimated. With more special reference to 

 Charles Darwin, he said : " And whatever final 

 value may be assigned to his doctrine, nothing 

 can ever detract from the luster shed upon it by 

 the wealth of his knowledge and the infinite in- 

 genuity of his resource." In some respects the 

 Darwinian theory has not effected the conquest 

 of scientific opinion. Natural selection can not 

 be accepted as the sole or even the main, agent 

 of whatever modifications may have led up to 

 the existing forms of life. The deepest obscuri- 

 ty still hangs over the origin of the infinite va- 

 riety of life. Moreover, it has been shown that 

 the amount of time required for working this 

 theory can not ,be conceded without a totally 

 different set of natural laws from those with 

 which we are acquainted. Until the physical 

 discrepancies are adjusted " the laity may be ex- 

 cused for returning a verdict of 'not proven' 

 upon the wider issues the Darwinian school has 

 raised." Quoting from Prof. Weisman, he said : 

 " ' We accept natural selection not because we 

 are able to demonstrate the process in detail, not 

 even because we can with more or less ease imag- 

 ine it, but simply because we must because it 

 is the only possible explanation that we can 

 conceive.' The reason that he gives seems to 

 me instructive of the great danger scientific re- 

 search is running at the present time the ac- 

 ceptance of mere conjecture in the name and 

 place of knowledge in preference to making 

 frankly the admission that no certain knowledge 

 can be attained. The cloud of impenetrable 

 mystery hangs over the development, and still 

 more over the origin, of life. If we strain our 

 eyes to pierce it, with the foregone conclusion 

 that some solution is and must be attainable we 

 shall only mistake for discoveries the figments of 

 our imagination." His concluding words were 

 the striking ones used by Lord Kelvin on a simi- 

 lar occasion more than twenty years ago : " I 

 have always fejfc that the hypothesis of natural 

 selection does not contain the true theory of 

 evolution, if evolution there has been in biology. 

 . . . Overpoweringly strong proofs of intelligent 

 and benevolent design lie around us, and if ever 

 perplexities, whether metaphysical or scientific, 

 turn us away from them for a time, they come 

 back upon us with irresistible force, showing to 

 us through Nature the influence of a free will, 

 and teaching us that all living things depend on 

 one everlasting Creator and Ruler." 



Proceedings of the Sections. A. Mathe- 

 matics and Physics. The presiding officer of 

 this section was Prof. Arthur W. Riicker, who 

 has been for many years engaged on the Mag- 

 netic Survey of the United Kingdom. His ad- 

 dress was devoted to problems and conclusions 

 suggested by his work on the survey. He re- 

 ferred at the outset to the inaccuracy of the in- 

 struments used at present, notably those for 

 measuring the declination and horizontal force 

 which are affected with errors amounting to 

 five or even ten times that of a single field ob- 

 servation. In 1891, at the meeting of the Inter- 

 national Meteorological Conference held in Mu- 



