36 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



MAN SCIENTIFICALLY CONSIDERED. 



Read before the Hamilton Association, January 28th, i8q2, 

 BY J. ALSTON MOFFAT. 



Man, as a subject of study, has ever been considered a profita- 

 ble one for men to engage in ; and although ft seems to be one that 

 he is in a position to know more about than any other, and that 

 more correctly, yet there are few subjects upon which a greater 

 diversity of opinion has been expressed. 



The subject is unquestionably complex, with many anomalies 

 and seeming contradictions in it, and from the limitation of the human 

 faculty, with its inability to grasp the whole of any subject at once,, 

 and its liability to dwell almost exclusively on the side which it pre- 

 fers, a partial, distorted and consequently erroneous view of it is 

 obtained, which has often led to much profitless disputation. 



Science has on this, as on many other subjects in recent years, 

 thrown a flood of light, but so many different conclusions have been 

 drawn from the same facts, that one is often perplexed and bewild- 

 ered by his reading upon it rather than enlightened. So I thought 

 it would be a profitable occupation for my own mind to gather 

 together the facts so far as I could obtain them, put them in order 

 in plain language, and see just what was known with certainty, what 

 might be known, and what could not be known about the whole 

 subject, and this paper is the outcome ot my effort. 



Now as the subject is in extent and importance out of all pro- 

 portion to the time allowable for one paper, I shall have to confine 

 myself largely to a statement of principles, leaving each one to fol- 

 low out and apply them for himself. 



The scientific method of investigation is to take an object just 

 as we find it ; discover as far as possible its character, constitution 

 and origin ; how it acts, and is acted upon ; its relation to its en- 

 vironment and other organisms ; its resemblances and differences ; 

 that it may be properly placed in that portion of the system of 

 nature to which it belongs. One of the most prominent and un- 



