86 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



members of the Committee, see preface, p. viii), or 

 to the lecturer, shall have an opportunity of stating 

 and defending any opinions they may have at 

 variance with those put forward by the lecturer. 

 Some of the undersigned Committee members 

 propose to avail themselves of this privilege.' 



These were the only conditions officially laid 

 down by the Committee; the details were left 

 to be settled later on by the lecturer and his 

 opponents. 



The number of gentlemen who gave in their 

 names as wishing to take part in the debate 

 amounted to twenty-five, and amongst them were 

 some who were not hostile to my views. It was 

 obvious that so many could not speak on one 

 evening, and I thought it best that preference 

 should be given to my opponents. 



In order to arrive at a definite agreement as to 

 the conditions for the debate, on February 12th 

 I had a conversation with my chief opponent, 

 Professor Plate, who was a member of the Com- 

 mittee. I told him that I must be allowed to speak 

 at least twice, once after him and again at the close, 

 after the other speakers, and I stipulated that the 

 whole debate, including my reply, should not much 

 exceed two hours in duration. 1 



1 I had originally declared that it would be only fair to allow me to 

 give a few words of reply between the other speeches, if it seemed to me 

 desirable, but eventually I withdrew this condition in order not to prolong 

 the debate unduly, and I agreed to speak only twice, if the debate were 

 limited to two hours. 



