I il 



772 



REPORT— 1884. 



havinf? a distinct hind nail. Many other points indicate timt it is in the Pacific 

 that the majority of the existing,' groups, and even species ol" Gulls and Terns, havf 

 originated. 



8. Result of the Investigations of Insular Floras. Bij W. B. Helmslet. 



9. Some Observations on the direct descendants of Bos rriniirjenius it, 

 Great Britain. By G. P. Hughes. 



The author gave a brief .sketch of the grounds we have, through numeroi;!! 

 remains of Iks Urus or I'rimigenius, and from the account in llomau history of 

 the domestic and Avild ox of 2,000 years ago, for supposing that the threo typical 

 breeds we have remaining in the parks of ( 'hartley, Cadzow, and Chillingham ar« 

 well nigh direct descendants of that aboriginal race. 



lie described the difl'erenco between the Bos Primigenius and the Bos Lon- 

 gifrons, the ancestors of our British cattle. 



lie pointed out some mistakes in the report sent to the late Mr. Storerof the 

 Cadzow herd of cuttle, stating that they were a polled herd of cows. Tiie aiitVr 

 found the entire herd possessed of well-set on horns of 18 inches long ; ho also tburd 

 their colour to be white, with a few black ticks, and not cream-coloured. He 

 visited the Ohillinjrliiim herd, and gave particulars as to an attempt at crossinjr 

 being tried witli a Durham bull. He considers the Chillingham herd the finesi 

 type of the Primigenius at this day extant. 



10. On Natural Co-ordination, as evinced, in Organic Evolution. 



By Dr. W. Fraser. 



Nature affords us no decisive evidence of either creative or annihilative iDte> 

 ference, all its manifestations seeming to result solely from the spontaneous 

 operation of pre-inherent energies. But while the universe as a whole appear- 

 thus like an independent aiid uninterrupted system, with sequences limited and 

 determined only oy intrinsic capacities and tendencies, all its subordinate indi- 

 vidual parts, consisting of mere potentialities, dependent for the actual evolution of 

 their energies on supplementary aids, and also liable to adventitious disturbarice-. 

 have their activities limited and determined by extrinsic as well as intrinsic 

 conditions. 



Inorganic units, comprising both atoms and molecides, are universally intrans- 

 mutable and agenetic in constitution and endowments, being utterly dwoid of 

 either progressive or productive individual capacities, for, though compound 

 chemical substances may be resolvable into more elementary ones, this constitute; 

 neither production nor progress, as the physical processes of alternate compositioE 

 and decomposition are indefinitely reversible without the slightest f.ppreciable 

 modification of intimate constitution in any of tlie factors engaged. 



In contrast to the intransmutable and agenetic character of inorganic units, all 

 organic forms, embracing germs, organisms, and structural e'ements,, are distin- 

 guished by the possession of transmutable dispositions and genetic potentialities; 

 no organisation ever remaining absolutely alike during any consecutive periods of 

 developmental activity, and every integral portion, when properly supplemented 

 and protected, seeming competent to directly or indirectly engender and perpetuatt 

 interminable successions of more or less similarly endowed products. 



As organic units, in common with all other subordinate material systems, 

 include but mere potentialities, the absence or incongruity of auxiliaries often as 

 effectually restrains their evolutional tendencies as would the direct operation of 

 positively injurious agencies. 



All development is practically subjected to extraneous restraints, no organisa' 

 tion ever realising the greatest results which its juherent potentialities would admit. 

 The restraints to collective development are clearly seen in the limited expw- 



