6io 



NA TURE 



\April7&,, 1884 



between present species and those which lived in past ages. I 

 may here, to give only one instance, refer to Huxley's important 

 researches into th'? relations of the members of the family 

 Equidae, the Anchitherium, Ilipparion, and Equus. At the 

 same time the gulf between the diflerent classes of vertebrates is 

 being gradually bridged over by car. ful research. Thus Prof. 

 O. C. Marsh has shoun that the Jurassic bird Archosopteryx 

 from Snlenhofen is closely connected with the Dinosaurs, 

 generally consit'ered to be most nearly allied to birds. Archcuo- 

 pteryx has besides true teeth in sockets, bi concave vertebrae, the 

 pelvic bones are separate, and the metatarsals either separate or 

 at least imperfectly united. Ameiican fossil birds, such as 

 Ichthyornis, have also bi concave vertebrae (like fishes and some 

 •Saurians), and teeth in sockets. The skull of Otontoptcry.x 

 toliapicus, found in the Isle of Sheppey, in the London Clay, has 

 also true teeth in sockets. 



There is, however, in palasobotany still a great deal that is 

 in many respects unsatisfactory and inconclusive. This is mainly 

 owing to the fragmentary material at our commard, consisting 

 mostly of leaves, the determination of which in many instances 

 may lead us to wrong inferences. To give only one instance, I 

 wish to refer to O. Feistmantel's latent researches on the 

 palfeozoic and mesozoic flora of Australia, with which our own 

 fossil flora is closely connected. 



The eminent paleontologist of the Indian Geological Survey 

 comes to the conclusion that Phyllotheca, in Europe and Siberia 

 of Jurassic age, is palaeozoic in New South Wales, and upper 

 mesozoic in Victoria ; Glostopteris, palfeozoic in Australia, is 

 Jurassic in India and Rus>ia. Noeggerathiopsis, beginning to 

 appear in palceozoic beds in Australia, is represented by the 

 iuras-ic Rhiptozamites in Siberia. 



It is unque-tionable that such conclusions, before they can 

 be adopted, have to be confirmed by evidence of a still more 

 reliable character than the present material tor comparison can 

 have afforded. 



Returning to the physical conditions under which the surface 

 of our globe has been formed and is still forming, I may here 

 point out that since evolution has been adopted by mo.^t scientific 

 men as a beacon to guide them to truth, the greater portion of 

 the so-called uniforuiitarian school of geologists, following in 

 the footsteps of Lyell, has become somewhat modified in its 

 views, and may now be called the evolutional school. But let me 

 hasten to add that I.yell himself, with his great love. for truth, 

 may be claimed as one of its first disciple-, he having review ed 

 his own writings by the light Darwin held up to us, which is 

 sure to advance geology even more than we can at present 

 realise. 



There is one question of great importance, in the solving of 

 which both the geologist and the palaeontologist have to go hand 

 in hand with the archjeologist. There is no doubt that the 

 human race existed already in pliocene times ; and if we can 

 trust the reports of discoveries in Portugal and other portions 

 of Southern Euiope, man may have lived as early as the miocene 

 age. 



However, we want further and clearer evidence before this 

 latter view can be adopted. If we consider the enormous space 

 of time that separates us from our first ancestors, the oldest 

 historical facts preserved seem to us as of to-day ; and taking 

 into account the wonderful progress the human race has made 

 from the condition of the cave-dwellers, with their rude stone 

 implements, to our present state of civilisation, we ought to 

 look ..roudly upon the position mankind has attained. And 

 we can therefore scarcely conceive the high degree of perfection, 

 both physically and mentally, the human race may reach \\\ 

 future. 



Although, as far as our researches go, the autochthones of New 

 Zealand cannot boast of great antiquity when compared with the 

 inhabitants of the Northern Hemisphere or of the tropical 

 regions, there is nevertheless strong reason to believe that this 

 country has been inhabited for a much longer time than was 

 formerly generally assumed. 



It is, however, possible, that some of the traces we have 

 hitherto found of the oldest occupancy of these islands may 

 have been left behind by occasional visitors, adventurers i.n 

 search of new countries, or by crews of wrecked ships coming 

 from distant shores. 



But we have only begun to examine these questions ; and 

 although, as is always the case, the wiseacres will first shake 

 their hrads, if our researches are only continued without fear 

 and w ithout preconceived conclusions, \\e may be certain that 

 valuable results will be in store for us. 



The existence of loess beds, often of considerable thickness, 

 in numerous parts of New Zealand, of which many have begun 

 to be deposited before the beginning of our great glacier period, 

 will be of great use, and offer us an excellent field for research in 

 this direction. These beds being of subaerial origin, not only 

 the remains of land animals are preserved in them, but we shall 

 find in them also the traces of man. I may here mention the 

 strange fact that the true nature of these beds has for a long time 

 been misunderstood and misinter|ireted by most English geolo- 

 gists. Even in the last edition of I^yell's "Elements of 

 Geology," the loess cf the Rhine is described as fluviatile loam, 

 whilst the author himself shows that only the remains of land 

 shells and land vertebrates are embedded in it. It has always 

 been inconceivable to me how such an error should have re- 

 mained ^0 long uncorrected ; the more so as, as far back as 1847, 

 Alex. Braun, in " Leonhard and Bronn's Nenes Jahrbuch," has 

 shown the true state of things, and German geologists have re- 

 peatedly furnished new facts in illu-tration and given analyses of 

 loess and of recent and older fluviatile deposits of the Rhine for 

 comparison. 



But, as I have previously pointed out, the peculiar nature of 

 the loess deposits — the minute vertical capillary structure caused 

 by the empty spaces once filled by the rootlets cf innumerable 

 generations of grasses — is a sure guide even to a tyro in geology. 

 This structure amongst these localities is well exhibited in the 

 fresh cuttings near Lytteltr n. 



I fear that the time allotted to me will not allow me to enter 

 more fully into a review of what has already been accomplished 

 to make geology an inductive science, and what remains still to 

 be done, but I maybe permicted to allude to one of the principal 

 causes that retarded geology from taking its present position. 

 This was the fear of the student to enter into antagonism with 

 the established religious cosmogony. It is unnecessary to allude 

 to the middle ages, because the stake or disappearance in the 

 dungeons of the holy inqui-ition were the rewards of fearless 

 phy^ical research, and men like Galileo and Descartes were 

 obliged to use often evasive language, unworthy of such great 

 thinkers, in order to preserve their lives or freedom, and there- 

 fore my remarks will only ap- ly to our own times. In proof of 

 this I wish only to quote one work, "Vestiges of the Natural 

 History of Creation," of which the first edition ajpeared in 

 1844. If Me read this book at the present time, we can scarcely 

 understand how it could have created such intense indignation 

 amongst a large portion of the community, or that so much 

 could have been written ag.iinst it. Lyell himself, when pub- 

 lishing his "Principles of Geology," a work of a true philo- 

 sopher, wa=, juds;ing from some letters in his biography, very 

 careful not to hurt too much the prejudices of his time, not 

 VA'ishing to mar the usefulness of his work. Even at the present 

 time are there not thousands and thousands of well-meaning but 

 narrow-minded perons, at once entering into strenuous opposi- 

 tion when there is any reference made to scientific cosmogony 

 differing from that they have been accustomed to from their 

 youth, and that cannot stand before the light of modern 

 research ? 



However, the great principle of liberty for tie teacher, so 

 well expressed by the (German word " Lehrfreiheif," cherished 

 by the whole T.-utonic race, a principle even preserved in the 

 German universities during the darkest days of absolutism, is a 

 safeguard of inestimable vnlue, possessed fortunately also by our 

 New Zealand University, the Abiia Ahiter for whose advance- 

 ment to the highest attainable position and general utility we 

 ought willingly to devote our whole strength and best energies. 



DUST- FREE SPACES ' 



WITHIN the last few years a singrdar interest has arisen in 

 the subject of dust, smoke, and fog, and several scientific 

 researches into the nature and properties of these phenomena 

 have been recently conducted. It so happened that at the time 

 I received a request from the Secretary of this Society to lecture 

 here this afternoon I was in the middle of a research connected 

 with dust, which I had been carrying on for some months in 

 conjunction with Mr. T- W. Clark, Demonstrator of Physics in 

 University College, Liverpool, and which had led us to some 

 interesting results. It struck me that possibly some sort of 

 account of this investigation might not be unacceptable to a 

 learned body such as this, and accordingly I telegraphed off to 

 • I.eclure to the Royal Dublin Souety by Dr. Oliver J. Lodge, April 2. 



