580 EEPOiiT — 1882. 



DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 



Chairman op the Departmen-i— Professor M. A. Lawsou, M.A., F.L.S. 



(Vice-President of the Section). 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 24. 



Tlie Department did not meet. 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 25. 



The Chairman delivered the following Address: — 



Although the President of this Section has made eloquent allusion to the great 

 loss which the whole scientific world has sustained in the death of our great 

 countryman, Charles Darwin, still I am sure I shall not he thought to he doing 

 more than is my bounden duty if I, too, from this chair gi^e some utterance to 

 the deep sense of irretrievable loss wliich all we in tliis department must feel has 

 fallen npon us. 



It is not my Intention to give an account of Mr. Darwin's numerous works, for 

 that has already been partially done by abler hands than mine, and a complete 

 survey of his labours woidd occupy much more time than that which is usually 

 allotted to an address such as this. At the same time I think that in this depart- 

 ment we are particidarly called upon to give utterance to some expression of our 

 feelings, inasmuch as we may be said to ha^'e been more concerned in those matters 

 (jf which Mr. Darwin was teacher than any other section of the Association. It 

 was upon this platform, more than in any other place, that the great battle of the 

 doctrine of evolution, which is so intimately connected with Mr. Darwin's name, 

 was fought. It was upon this platform that his friends and coadjutors — Mr. 

 Alfred Wallace, Sir Joseph Hooker, Professor Huxley, and many others— ex- 

 pounded his ^iews, and added by their own researches to the siun of evidence 

 which has finally convinced all the leading scientists of the day of the substantial 

 sovuidness of his speculations. 



There are many of us now present who will never forget the intense interest 

 and excitement which attended the discussions wliich took place in the earlier 

 days of the history of the doctrine of evolution ; nor shall we forget with what 

 bitterness Mr. Darwin's views were met, on the occasion of the Association's meet- 

 ings at Oxford, Cambridge, Norwich, and Exeter: nor how everything that came 

 from his pen was regarded with feelings of suspicion and hatred ; and how even his 

 blameless and guileless character was frequently assailed by those who could only 

 see in his works a desire to dethrone all that which they considered sacred. It is 

 also in the recollection of all of us here how he met tlie attacks Avhich were made 

 upon him with silence, never returning opprobrious declamation or insulting sarcasm 

 by angry or contemptuous answers. Ever conscious that his aim was to search out 

 the truth and that only, he could afford to disregard contumely and misrepresenta- 

 tion. Indeed, so completely was he imbued by the consciousness that his aim was 

 righteous, that the taunts and sneers which were lavished upon him seem to have 

 been powerless even to vex him. Again, we in this department will remember how 

 these attacks year by year grew less frequent and less bitter : how wholesale 

 denunciation gave place to legitimate questionings of particular points, and how 

 even personalities at last gave place to general professions of esteem and respect ; 

 till at last, but a few short months ago, we witnessed the burial of his remains in 



