Northern News. 203 



THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 



The Presidential Address of Prof. E. A. Minchin to the 

 Quekett Club is printed in the Club's Journal, recently pub- 

 lished, and deals with ' Speculations with regard to the simplest 

 forms of life and their origin on the earth.' He deals fully 

 with what he terms the Lankesterian theory and the Arrhenian 

 theory of the origin of life. But concludes : ' Since it is im- 

 possible to put the matter to a crucial test, each of the two 

 opposed views remains a pious belief merely. For my part I 

 believe that the view which a man holds with regard to the 

 nature of life depends on the inner constitution and fabric, so 

 to speak, of his mind, and not on his reasoning process. A 

 man is born a vitalist or a mechanist before ever he has thought 

 about such matters, and to argue on the subject is futile. At 

 a time when I was younger than I am now, I have myself 

 debated and discussed such matters hotly, like old Khayyam : — 



Myself when young did eagerly frequent 

 Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument 

 About it and about ; but evermore 

 Came out by the same Door as in I went. 



It is my belief that all that is gained by such discussions is 

 to enable a man to ascertain what is the type of mental bias 

 with which he has come into being. The questions which lie 

 at the base of the difference of opinion are at present not capable 

 of being put to the test ; and so far as one can see, they seem 

 likely to remain for ever the most inscrutable of problems.' 



The Rev. E. Jones has presented a collection of remains from the 

 Elbolton Cave to the Keighley Museum. 



We learn from the Yorkshire Evening Neii-s that ' Professor Boyd 

 Dawkins told a York audience that man was in York in the Stone Age. 

 He said nothing of the stone- jar age.' Ccmic papers please copy. 



From the Board of .Agriculture and Fisheries we have received a leaflet 

 Xo. 261, which deals with ' The Scawby Agricultural Credit Society. An 

 example of an Agricultural Credit Society.' Scawby is near Brigg, in 

 Lincolnshire, and the society referred to is the oldest of its kind in the 

 country. 



Mr. C. G. Lloyd, of the Lloyd Library, Ohio, has issued an admirable 

 pamphlet entitled Synopsis of the Stipitate Polyporoids, which contains 

 some of the finest illustrations of fungi that we have ever seen. As a 

 frontispiece is a portrait of the Rev. G. Bresadola, of whom Mr. Lloyd states 

 that he ' has the best critical knowledge of foreign Polyporoids, and to 

 whom I am indebted for many determinations and advice.' 



We have previously remarked on the large field covered by budding 

 librarians. In a set of questions issued by the Library Association, for 

 the ' Professional Examination,' under the head of ' Library Routine,' 

 we notice ' D. — i. — State the Act or Acts under which Museums may be 

 established in this country, and the provisions which such Act or Acts 

 make for their financial support.' And in order to pass their examination, 

 we suppose all the assistants must reply ' The Public Libraries Act, of 

 course ' ! 



1912 July I. 



