66 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
Was there any want of unanimity at the meeting of the Royal College 
of Surgeons, etc., in England, recently, presided over by the late 
Sir W. McCormack, who gave up his great practice in London to 
attend our sick and wounded soldiers in South Africa? Among all 
the Fellows of the Royal College on that occasion there was not 
found any to dispute the facts of Evolution brought forward by Dr. 
McNamara in his address. ‘The study of Evolution is evidently not 
confined to the Fellows or higher members of the medical profession. 
Lectures on the subject are frequently given in the old country by 
M. D.’s also, which meet with approval. Wherever Darwin’s theory 
is advocated, even in Ottawa (Ont.), etc., it advances with giant 
strides. Dr. Daly, at the Y. M. C. Association of that city (Ottawa), 
lately read a paper on “‘ The Relation of Geology to Geography,” of 
which the following is an extract: ‘‘ Living organic species have no 
‘“more surely been evolved from earlier types than the present form 
“ of the land has been developed from pre-existing forms.” 
Undoubtedly the most valuable testimony we can get on Evo- 
lution is that of medical experts. The Doctor claims that the finest 
scientific minds are not agreed as to Evolution; the best do not 
accept it—some who did now give it up. The statement is quite 
inaccurate. It has been accepted by the leading scientists in Eng- 
land, Germany, France, Italy and the United States in overwhelm- 
ing numbers. Only recently I called the attention of the Geological 
Section of this Association to the honors conferred on Heckel and 
others by the great English university ; to the meeting of the Fellows 
of the Royal College of Surgeons, presided over by Sir W. McCor- 
mick, as I mentioned. The writer has obtained, through the 
kindness of an old friend and brother officer, copies of two papers 
published by “The Cheltenham Natural Science Society.” One 
was the president’s address on “The Evolution of the Hand and 
Wrist in Vertebrate Animals.” The writer states that our informa- 
tion concerning the evolution of limbs comes from several sources, 
which are largely supplementary to each other. The first is Com- 
parative Anatomy, or an examination of the parts themselves; the 
second is Embryology, by which we are enabled to observe in the 
individual growth an epitome of those evolutionary changes through 
which the adult creature has come to be what it now is ; the third is 
Paleontology, or the record of the rocks—admittedly imperfect, but 
