ORDINARY MEETING.* 

 The Rev. Canon Girdlestone, M.A., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 

 The following paper was then read by the author : — 



THE NATURAL AND THE ARTIFICIAL. By 

 Alfred T. Schofield, Esq., M.D., M.R.C.S. 



NO one can be more conscious than myself of the irapos- 

 sibihty of advancing Science, in the narrow sense of 

 the v/ord, one step b}' means of metaphysics or any form of 

 a priori reasoning. But there are so many questions con- 

 nected with science and there is so much in the wider aspect 

 of the word that is as yet unknown, that although such 

 questions may not be resolvable by experiment or by the 

 chemist's test tube and balance, they are yet of such wide 

 interest and great importance as to be well worthy of the 

 attention of this Society. 



It is now generally admitted that all questions as to origins 

 and first causes are in their nature only to be approached 

 by deductions and inferences and methods of a priori 

 reasoning ; and scientists themselves, though allowing 

 nothing within the narrow range of their text books to 

 be asserted without proof, are not at all slow to affirm 

 and deny on many subjects that are outside demonstration. 



It is true that of late years the sceptic as well as the 

 believer have been partially displaced by the agnostic, and 



* 5th Meetinir of 30th Session. 



