2 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



In olden times men kept their calendars by naming each year according 

 to its outstanding event. I have no doubt that in future times the 

 Subject of historian of this Association, when he comes to distinguish 

 Address. the Presidential year which opened so auspiciously in Oxford 

 twelve months ago, will be moved to revert to this ancient custom and 

 name it the Prince's Year. And I am under no misapprehension as to 

 what will happen when our historian comes to the term which I have now 

 the honour of inaugurating at Leeds ; he will immediately relapse to the 

 normal system of numerical notation. Nor will our historian fail to note, 

 should he be moved to contrast the Meeting at Oxford with that which 

 now begins at Leeds, that some mischievous sprite seems to have tampered 

 with the affairs of this Association. For how otherwise could he explain 

 the fortune which fell to ancient Oxford, the home of History ? To her 

 lot fell a brilliant discourse on the application of science to the betterment 

 of human lives, while Leeds, a city whose life's blood depends on the 

 successful application of Science to Industry, had to endure, as best she 

 could, a discourse on a theme of ancient history. For the subject of my 

 address is Man's remote history. Fifty-six years have come and gone 

 since Charles Darwin wrote a history of Man's Descent. How does his 

 work stand the test of time ? This is the question 1 propose to discuss 

 with you to-night in the brief hour at my disposal. 



In tracing the course of events which led up to our present conception 



of Man's origin, no place could serve as a historical starting-point so well 



as Leeds. In this city was fired the first verbal shot of that 



Shot in^he g l° n § an( ^ bitter strife which ended in the overthrow of those 



Darwinian w h defended the Biblical account of Man's creation and in a 

 Battle. 



victory for Darwin. On September 24, 1858 — sixty-nine 



years ago — the British Association assembled in this city just as we do 



to-night ; Sir Richard Owen, the first anatomist of his age, stood where 



I now stand. He had prepared a long address, four times the length of 



the one I propose to read, and surveyed, as he was well qualified to do, 



the whole realm of Science ; but only those parts which concern Man's 



origin require our attention now. He cited evidence which suggested a 



much earlier date for the appearance of man on earth than was sanctioned 



by Biblical records, but poured scorn on the idea that man was merely a 



transmuted ape. He declared to the assembled Association that the 



differences between man and ape were so great that it was necessary, in 



his opinion, to assign mankind to an altogether separate Order in the 



