SECTION C— GEOLOGY. 



PALEONTOLOGY AND HUMANITY 



ADDRESS BY 



PROF. H. L. HAWKINS, D.Sc, F.G.S., 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



Few branches of scientific research are less familiar to the general public 

 than Palaeontology. Restorations of extinct animals, glowering in 

 museums or quivering on the screen, do little to provide an understanding of 

 the subject ; they savour unduly of the temptation to start reading a novel 

 at the wrong end. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that to most people, 

 and not to the illiterate alone, the activities of palaeontologists are unknown 

 or mysterious. In many quarters a fossil-hunter is still looked upon as 

 perhaps amiable, and probably harmless ; while the small economic value 

 of his treasures is a clear index to the abnormality of his mind. Most of 

 us who work in the field still experience the difficulty of convincing casual 

 observers that the specimens we collect and cherish are objects worthy of 

 the attention of grown men who are also sane. 



It is not my intention to comment here on a system of education that 

 omits to give to its victims an intellectual appreciation of the world in 

 which they live. Any such diatribe would be dismissed, like all criticisms 

 of established custom, as the product of a biased mind. But I hope 

 that the facts and logical deductions that I am about to put before you, 

 from the privileged position in which you have placed me, may reach 

 beyond the walls of this room (where we are all of the true faith) and 

 convince sceptics that Palaeontology has a message of vital importance to 

 mankind. With this intent I propose to pass over the obvious geological 

 applications of the science, concentrating attention upon its biological 

 aspect. 



Palaeontology is, by name and nature, an historical study. Its aim is to 

 decipher the records of past life, and to translate the story into human 

 language. Without some knowledge of this sort, true appreciation of 

 life in the present is impossible. One of the main factors in human 

 progress has been an ability to learn from the experience of past generations. 

 That mankind is often lamentably ' slow in the uptake ' in this respect 

 only emphasises the importance of his faculty ; for when discredited 

 experiments are repeated progress is postponed. 



The old-fashioned type of biologist who ignored or rejected fossil 

 evidence was in the position of a man who, suffering from loss of memory, 

 might try to understand the present international situation with no other 

 guides than this morning's papers. This forlorn type is now virtually 



