PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. li. 



in the rocks of Greenland the remains of extensive forests, 

 consisting of trees, which now grow in temperate regions, the 

 only possible inference is that Greenland has now a far colder 

 climate than when these forests existed. A similar conclusion 

 follows from the presence of Palm leaves and other sub-tropical 

 plants preserved in the cliffs of Bournemouth, which now only 

 live in warm regions. Before, however, any conclusions with 

 regard to climatal changes can be regarded as firmly established, 

 we should have the testimony of species before us. 



The materials of the physical world are manufactured or 

 created products, and the progress of their development is the 

 result of the properties and laws impressed upon thpn* at first, 

 and regulated by their Creator to a definite end. Here we shall 

 not find any analogy in the origin and development of- life ; but 

 although all this is necessary to life, we require something more, 

 namely, the substance protoplasm, which does not exist in dead 

 nature, and which thus far has baffled all attempts to construct it 

 artificially from its elements. In addition to this, we require 

 some form of an organism, which must be present with 

 protoplasm before life can manifest itself. We know nothing of 

 protoplasm, organism, and life except as existing together. All 

 three are beyond our power to produce, and we have never 

 witnessed their production spontaneously nor by artificial means. 

 Protoplasm is physical in the sense of being material and existing 

 in nature, but it is not physical in the sense of being procurable 

 under ordinary physical conditions. If fertilised it has in it a living 

 and organised germ, also protoplasmic, and this germ can grow 

 and assimilate the remainder of the protoplasm and produce 

 out of it all the parts of an animal or plant. Protoplasm is a 

 highly complex substance, consisting of carbon or charcoal, 

 combined with three gases, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, and 

 with minute quantities of sulphur and phosphorus. But 

 protoplasm alone immediately decays, and is resolved into 

 ordinary inorganic compounds. Only as part of a living 

 organism can it be in any sense a basis or supporter of life, and 

 remain as an energy which will actuate organised and proto- 



