230 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
President R. S., Professor Beale, F. R. S., and others, of the various theories of 
Evolution, and it was reported that, as yet, no scientific evidence had been met 
with giving countenance to the theory that man had been evolved from a lower 
order in animals ; and Professor Virchow had declared that there was a complete 
absence of any fossil type of a lower stage in the development of man ; and that 
any positive advance in the province of prehistoric anthropology has actually 
removed us further from proofs of such connection, namely — with the rest of the 
animal kingdom. In this. Professor Barrande, the great palaeontologist, had con- 
curred, declaring that in none of his investigations had he found any one fossil 
species develop into another. In fact, it would seem that no scientific man had 
yet discovered a link between man and the ape, between fish and frog, or between 
the vertebrate and the invertebrate animals; further, there was no evidence of 
any one species, fossil or other, losing its peculiar characteristics to acquire new 
ones belonging to other species ; for instance, however similar the dog to the 
wolf, there was no connecting link, and among extinct species the same was the 
case ; there was no gradual passage from one to another. Moreover, the first 
animals that existed on the earth were by no means to be considered as inferior 
or degraded. Among other investigations, one into the truth of the argument 
from Design in Nature had been carried on, and had hitherto tended to fully 
confirm that doctrine. The question of the Assyrian inscriptions and the recent 
Babylonian researches had been under the leadership of Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, 
who, on his arrival from Nineveh, had given a full report of the extent of his new 
excavations, which were of the highest interest. His discovery of Sepharvaim, one 
of the first cities mentioned in Holy Writ, was most important. Professor Delitsch 
and others aided in the consideration of the discoveries and the inscriptions 
found. Two meetings had been held to consider the questions raised in- Herbert 
Spencer's Philosophy, and Lord O'Neill and others had shown, by a careful 
analysis of his arguments, that a greater attention to accuracy in statement would 
have kept Mr. Spencer from arriving at those hasty conclusions which had made 
his philosophy remarkable. It was announced that the results of explorations 
now being carried on in Egypt would be laid before the Institute early in the 
winter. The discoveries were very important, especially that of the site of Suc- 
coth, which, like the results of the survey of Palestine, was confirmatory of the 
Sacred Record. The quarterly journal, which had been published for sixteen^ 
years, was now issued free to all Members and Associates, whether at home or 
abroad. 
We are glad see the evidences of prosperity which are presented by the 
American Naturalist. The first half of the seventeenth volume contains over 
seven hundred pages, more that in some of the whole volumes of previous years. 
Illustrations are not used so freely as in the past. 
