March 6, 1902] 



NA TURE 



427 



limited intelligence, the forces to which they are due seem to 

 have been constantly directed in their course. The human 

 mind is more disposed to accept the idea of guidance than that 

 of predetermination, as it seems to us to be the less impossible 

 of the two, and the more easy to understand. We ourselves 

 wait upon circumstances ; we see how things are going to shape 

 before we move, and we fancy that the world must have been 

 made, and must be carried on, on the same principle. But the 

 study of nature gradually causes this belief to fade away. The 

 more we learn the more we see that secondary law extends 

 much further than we had expected, and we begin to think that 

 all may be due to secondary laws. 



We cannot doubt but that the most complicated cases of inherit- 

 ance — such as the growth of the train feathers of a peacock, or 

 the gorgeous wings of a butterfly — are due to secondary laws, 

 although the" processes are quite incomprehensible to us. We 

 believe these to be due to secondary laws, because we see them 

 taking place in exactly the same order over and over again ; 

 and in the case of the peacock we know that if we pull out the 

 feathers, new ones, similar to the old, will replace them. So 

 that we can bring these laws into play whenever we choose. 

 It is not sufficient, therefore, to say that an action is not due to 

 secondary law, because it is so wonderfully intricate, or because 

 it is incomprehensible to us. We must be able to show, either 

 that the action is antagonistic to known natural laws, or that 

 the result could not be due to a combination of any natural laws 

 that we have already discovered. That is, we must show a 

 discontinuity in the phenomena. Can any such breaks be 

 discovered ? 



The origin of the material universe, which was the starting 

 point of the present evolutionary process, appears to us to have 

 been a new departure in natural law. But we cannot feel 

 certain about it, for we do not know, and never can know, what 

 went before. But with the origin of life on the earth it is 

 different. The intimate structure of organic beings, as well as 

 their order of development on the earth, point to the conclusion 

 that they are all derived from a common ancestor, and that living 

 protoplasm was formed once, and once only, on the surface of 

 the sea. Now, in the origin of living substance on this planet 

 we have a case which is generally recognised as a break in con- 

 tinuity. It is generally allowed that it was an action which is 

 not only incomprehensible by us, but one which conflicts with 

 our knowledge of natural laws. That an unstable chemical 

 compound, endowed with the power of directing energy inde- 

 pendently of any outside agent, should have been brought into 

 existence by the action of known physical laws is an impossibility. 

 The processes of assimilation and fission, on which all progress 

 depends, are quite distinct from anything which had gone before. 

 And as every living cell is imbued with what we call instinct, 

 which directs its energies, it follows that in physiology ' 

 action and reaction are not equal and opposite. Indeed, every 

 organism inherits from its parents a store of energy which directs 

 growth and which appears to be inexhaustible. It is drawn 

 upon during the whole period of growth, which, in some plants, 

 lasts all through life, and yet abundance is left for transmission to 

 its offspring, no matter how numerous they may be. The store 

 increases instead of diminishes, and we cannot tell why. Until 

 some explanation can be given, it is not only permissible, but 

 reasonable, to view the origin of life as due to some guiding 

 action of natural law, especially when we remeinber what that 

 break in continuity has led to. 



Again, it has been often pointed out that the genesis of coti- 

 sciousness is as great a mystery as the genesis of life, and that it 

 seems to be equally opposed to the law of conservation of energy. 

 In the lower animals, and in .some of the lowest plants, we see 

 physiological processes producing movements which appear to be 

 intelligent, but which, in reality, are no more so than the movc- 

 ■ments of the leaves of a sensitive plant. And it is generally 

 allowed that for the exhibition of consciousness a brain-cortex is 

 required ; but how matter in the brain-cortex becomes self-con- 

 scious we cannot understand. However, it is possible to suppose 

 that mind is a necessary concomitant of life, so that the origin of 

 the two may be one and the same problem. Also, as conscious- 

 ness may be lost — as in habit — and regained by attention, it is 

 possible that consciousness may be a constant function of mind, 

 but one that cannot become efficient until a large number of 

 specially formed cells are accumulated in a brain-cortex. I 

 cannot, therefore, see that the genesis of consciousness in animals 

 necessarily marks a break in continuity, notwithstanding that its 

 origin is quite incomprehensible to us. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — Proposals have been laid before the Senate 

 for modifying the principles of classification in the natural 

 sciences tripos, though the proposals are not unanimously 

 acquiesced in by the boards concerned. In part i., in which at 

 present the aggregate mark in three or four sciences governs 

 the class, it is suggested that weight should also be given to the 

 candidate's particular performances in each subject. In part ii., 

 a candidate is required, for a first class, to take at least one 

 primary and one subsidiary subject : it is proposed to abolish 

 the requirement of a subsidiary subject. It is further proposed 

 that human anatomy and vertebrate comparative anatomy 

 should in future be reckoned as a single subject in this part of 

 the tripos. These changes, if approved, are to come into . 

 effect in 1904. 



Earl Speiicer, K.G., has been appointed an elector to the 

 professorship of agriculture in the place of the late Sir !■ H. 

 Gilbert, F.R.S. 



Under the will of the late Dr. Nathaniel Rogers, the Senate 

 of the University of London ofifer a prize of 100/., open for 

 competition to all the members of the medical profession in the 

 United ICingdom, for an essay on " The Production of Im- 

 munity in Specific Infective Diseases — generally, and with 

 particular Reference to any one Disease on which the Writer of 

 the Essay may have made Original Investigations.'' Essays 

 must be sent in not later than February 28, 1903, addressed 

 to Mr. Percy Wallace, secretary to the Senate. 



The report of the executive committee of the Carnegie Trust 

 for the Universities of Scotland on the administration of the 

 trust for the period from June 7, 1901, to December 31, 1901, 

 was read and passed at a meeting of the trustees last week. 

 For the winter session 1901-2, the sum of 22,941/. i6r. dd. was 

 paid by the trust up till December 31, 1901, on behalf of 

 2441 students, representing the fees of 7610 classes. The' 

 committee, in accordance with the expressed desire of Mr. Car- 

 negie, did not make question respecting the circumstances of 

 applicants ; but from information voluntarily offered by appli- 

 cants themselves, they have ample assurance that in a large' 

 number of cases the payment of class fees has proved a boon of 

 the greatest value to deserving students, and many acknow- 

 ledgments of the letter sent to the parents and guardians of 

 applicants express gratitude f.jr the timely assistance rendered by 

 the Trust. The class fees paid and the number of students were 

 as follows :— St. Andrews, 26S students, class fees, 2452/. ids.; 

 Glasgow, S2S students, class fees, 7672/. 13/. M.; Aberdeen, 

 473 students, class fees, 3806/. u. dd. ; Edinburgh, 872 students, 

 class fees, 9010/. 5j. dd. 



Mr. J. H. Gartside has given to the Owens College, Man- 

 chester, the sum of 10,000/., which has been applied in the 

 purchase of an annuity of 1 163/. a year for ten years, payable 

 to the college, to be used for the provision of scholarships, 

 which are to be known as " The Gartside Scholarships of Com- 

 merce and Industries." The scholarships are intended to induce 

 young men who have already received a good education to 

 devote a year at least in Owens College to the special study of 

 subjects bearing on commerce and industry, and then to go abroad 

 for the study of some particular subject, either in Germany or 

 the United States, or some other country approved by the 

 electors to the scholarships. The emoluments of the scholar 

 while in England will be about So/, a year, but when travelling 

 abroad a larger .sum will be given, which in the case of scholars 

 travelling in the United States will probably be about 250/. per 

 annum. The scholars are to furnish reports of their investiga- 

 tions in the foreign countries which they visit. These scholar- 

 ships are intended by Mr. Gartside to be an incentive and 

 assistance to those who contemplate a careful study of com- 

 mercial and industrial methods, and should enable useful infor- 

 mation to be obtained with regard to these subjects, both in. 

 America and on the Continent. 



At the annual general meeting of the members of University 

 College, London, held last week, Lord Reay moved the follow- 

 ing resolution on behalf of the council :—" That this meeting 

 has heard with great satisfaction of the generous offer of the 

 Drapers' Cornpany to make themselves responsible for the debt 

 upon the college to the extent of 30,000/., and of another friend 



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