502nD ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING. 
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7tu, 1910. 
D. Howarp, Esq., D.L, F.CS., F.LC. (Vick-PresIpEnt), 
IN THE CHAIR. 
The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed. 
The following paper was then read by the author :— 
SPECIES AND THEIR ORIGIN. 
By the Rev. Jonn Gerard, F.L.S. 
O those who give attention to the discussion concerning the 
origin of species, which since the time of Mr. Darwin 
has so greatly exercised the scientific mind, it must frequently 
have occurred not only that there seems no great prospect 
of a conclusion being reached which shall secure universal, or 
even general, acceptance, but that it is by no means clear what 
the question itself is. Yet it is evident that, unless this be 
first made perfectly clear, the discussion is not likely to have 
any very profitable issue. Before we can arrive at any result 
worth having touching the origin of species, or the manner in 
which they have come to be what we actually find them, 
we must begin by determining what we signify by the term, 
that is to say, what species are. But to determine this will 
certainly not be easy, for although everybody freely uses the 
word, and has a general idea of its meaning sufficient for practical 
purposes, very little investigation is required to show that 
the differences masked by its employment are both wide and 
vital. 
Despite the title of his famous work, with which the question 
we speak of must always be connected, Darwin himself seems 
never formally to have stated what, in his view, “ species ” should 
