228 REV. JAMES WHITE, M.A., ON 
harshness and severity of their application. By ignoring or 
disobeying the laws of nature, we only multiply and. prolong 
suffering. Our truest mercy and our highest wisdom is to obey 
them. 
COMMUNICATION ON REv. JAMES WHITE’S PAPER. 
By Proressor Epwarp Hutu, LL.D., V.P. 
Read on the conclusion of the paper. 
In thanking the author for his interesting paper I wish, in the 
first place, to express dissent from the idea that there is any possible 
analogy between Newton’s Law of General Gravitation, and the 
inferential hypothesis of Darwin and Wallace, to account for the 
succession of species of plants and animals. Valuable as this 
hypothesis may be, and useful as a workable basis for naturalists to 
build upon, it still remains simply an hypothesis open to discussion, 
founded on observations more or less liable to error, and certainly, 
limited in application; whereas Newton’s Law is of universal 
application, mathematically true, and verified by astronomers in their 
calculations regarding the mechanism of the universe. The analogy, 
therefore, does not exist; the hypothesis of evolution and the law 
of gravitation stand on different planes, and doubtless the author 
is aware of this. 
But in dealing with the “ Darwinian theory ” of evolution it should 
not be forgotten that there are difficulties in its acceptance which 
have to be overcome before it can be accepted by naturalists. As 
yet no case of transmutation of species has been observed ; and the 
curious fact remains, that most, if not all, plants and animals which 
have been modified by domestication or culture exhibit a tendency 
to revert to the original type when in a state of nature, and 
Dr. Darwin’s own instance of the pigeons has always appeared to me 
to be opposed to his views ; lastly, hybrids are not fertile. 
Those of us who, like myself, have not read Malthus’s works, but 
are only acquainted with this profound writer as the author of 
what are called ‘“ Malthusian doctrines,” will be grateful to the 
author for rescuing his memory from association with views which 
