September 14, 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



125 



and volition to the more complex instinctive and reasoning facul- 

 ties of higher animals. 



Where, then, shall we draw the line in the evolution of mind be- 

 tween the high degrees of consciousness in animals, and self-con- 

 sciousness, which is believed to be a peculiarly human attribute, 

 and at the foundation of all that constitutes con-science and makes 

 him a moral and responsible being ? The beginnings of self-con- 

 sciousness are traceable in animals, since many of the phenomena 

 of sexual selection and the well-known sense of shame in our 

 domestic associates could scarcely have resulted without it ; and it 

 seems to me illogical to argue, as some of our best writers on evolu- 

 tion have done, that self-consciousness is an attribute that must 

 have been breathed into man by special, supernatural act. 



From the consideration of the general subject of mind in nature, 

 we are brought inevitably to the question of design. There can be 

 no doubt that the tendency of evolution has been to remove further 

 and further the idea of an infinite first cause. The argument for 

 design, however, as Asa Gray has so well set forth, rests on the 

 fact that tha designed and the contingent can never be accurately 

 ■discriminated, and that limitation, in the very nature of the case, is 

 inconceivable. It seems to me that the evidences of design in 

 nature are so overwhelming that its advocates have an immense ad- 

 vantage over those who would discard it. A fortuitous cosmos is, 

 to most persons, utterly inconceivable ; yet there is no other alter- 

 native than a designed cosmos. 



The most philosophic view is probably that which, while rec- 

 ognizing an intelligent creative power, or mind, which has worked 

 and is yet working through ordained laws, yet leaves the detailed 

 manifestations to secondary causes and finite action. Limiting 

 conditions or laws, since law is but a limiting condition and nature 

 an active power, may act together in producing secondary causes, 

 but the great and infinite cause may be looked upon as that which 

 upholds the universe. 



I have ventured just within the question of design, because of 

 the prevalent belief that evolution eliminates it from our concep- 

 tion, and because I have felt that as between the extreme schools 

 the middle ground chosen by our late lamented Gray is far the 

 more satisfactoiy and philosophical. On the other great question 

 of what life is, or how it originated, I commend the candor of 

 Marsh in closing his address as president of the association in 1S77 

 with the words, " In this long history of life I have said nothing of 

 what life is ; and for the best of reasons, because I know nothing." 

 The genesis or formation of individual life, in ijpite of saint and 

 sage, is yet a mystery, and probably always will be. 



All that evolution recognizes is the transmutability — the generic 

 identity — of the forces of nature, which, in their aggregate action, 

 may properly be defined as omnipresent energy. We know, as a 

 matter of the simplest observation, that this combined force or 

 energy is essential to the continuance of life, not only upon our 

 planet, but, deductively, in the universe. We are justified in infer- 

 ring that it is capable, under fit conditions, of originating life from 

 what we know as non-living matter. Evolution, in fact, inevitably 

 leads to the inference that vital force is transmutable into, and de- 

 rivable from, physical and chemical force. 



SCHOOL OF BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. 



This school is founded upon the gift of one hundred thousand 

 dollars by the late Samuel Miller of Lynchburg, Va., who provided 

 that the income from this fund should be expended for " the ad- 

 vancement of agriculture as a science and as a practical art by the 

 instruction therein, and in the sciences connected therewith, of the 

 youth of the country." 



A part of the income is used to maintain the work in agricultural 

 chemistry, carried on in connection with the chemical department 

 of the university, under the direction of Professors Mallet and 

 Dunnington. 



The residue, and the larger portion of the income, is to be e.x- 

 pended in promoting instruction and research in biology. One 

 floor of the medical hall (42 by 42 feet) is now being fitted up for 

 a biological laboratory, including, as in the annexed plan, a labora- 

 tory-room for students, a private laboratory for the professor, a 

 photographic room, and storerooms. 



The equipment has already been ordered, and will consist of 

 microscopes and dissecting-instruments for the students, micro- 

 tomes, apparatus for staining and mounting preparations, photo- 

 graphic apparatus, instruments of precision for advanced researches, 

 and a working library, and a file of periodical literature. 



The instruction will be by lectures, with associated laboratory- 



■^<>ii:<^-^^^^^.- 



. TUTTLE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGI.N'IA. 



work, and will cover general biology, zoology and comparative 

 anatomy, and biology applied to agriculture. 



The professor-elect is Mr. Albert H. Tuttle, recently professor 

 of biology in the Ohio State University at Columbus. He was 

 born in Summit County, O., in 1844, was graduated from the State 

 College of Pennsylvania, taught for two years (1868-70) in the 

 First State Normal College of Wisconsin, was graduate student 



PLAN OF DIOLOGICAL LADORATORV, 



A, hM ; B, student's laboratory (29' X 34') ; C, private laboratory (la' 6' X ii') ; D, 

 photographic room (i3'Xi2'6'); ^.storeroom (8' 6' X 16') ; ^.closet; G, 

 st.-virivay to physiological room. 



and instructor in microscopy in the Harvard Museum of Zoology 

 under Professor Agasstz (1S70-72), travelled and studied in 

 Europe (1S72-74), and was professor in Ohio State University 

 (1874-88). During one year of this period he was absent on leave 

 as graduate student in the biological laboratory of Johns Hopkins 

 University. 



