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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



SOUTH-EASTERN UNION OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



'"THE Annual Congress, the first indeed, of the 

 recently-formed Union of Scientific Societies 

 of South-Eastern England, was successfully held 

 at Tunbridge Wells on May 21st and 22nd. Like 

 its inception and establishment, this success of the 

 Union's meeting is to be chiefly attributed to the 

 energy and tact of Mr. George Abbott, the well- 

 known medical practitioner of Tunbridge Wells. 

 The Congress was well attended by delegates from 

 the various societies constituting the Union, and 

 was presided over by the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing, 

 F.R.S., also of that town. The public proceedings 

 commenced on Friday afternoon with a meeting of 

 the delegates held in the Town Hall, when Mr. 

 Stebbing delivered his presidential address. After 

 pointing out that of all the societies which had 

 been invited to join the Union, those which had 

 associated were almost exclusively natural history 

 societies, the President proceeded to compare the 

 standing of natural history in the estimation of the 

 general public now and one hundred and fifty 

 years ago. He also referred to the difference of 

 knowledge of " science " then and now. He gave 

 a sketch of the progress of that type of learning 

 through the century and a-half, including reviews 

 of the work of the fathers of natural science, such 

 as Buffon, Linnaeus, John Hutton, William Smith, 

 Cuvier, Darwin, and many others. Continuing 

 his comparison, the President reminded his 

 audience of the other changes which have come 

 over civilization largely during those times. He 

 said : " Carry back your minds to the almost 

 unthinkable time when printing was unknown, 

 when there was no Post Office and no freedom of 

 the press, when paper was costly, and when men 

 had to do their travelling without railways and 

 steamers. You will see that under those conditions 

 naturalists were almost as helpless as monkeys 

 and other sagacious animals which are kept at a 

 low level of civilization, because their means of 

 communicating and keeping on record bright and 

 improving ideas were so extremely imperfect." 

 . After speaking of the early and even later 

 difficulties the teachers of science have had to 

 contend against, he pointed out the work being 

 done by the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, and the work in a lesser degree 

 possible for the Union, of which the Rev. Mr. 

 Stebbing was, when speaking, the first President. 

 The following quotations are taken from his 

 speech : 



"It is commonly supposed that the advance of 

 science has been greatly hindered by the persistent 

 and often recurring opposition of theologians. 

 That may be true of the middle ages, but of the 



last century and our own it is extremely doubtful. 

 The new views on the age of the earth, on the 

 antiquity of man, on the transmutation of species 

 severally in their turn aroused, it is true, the most 

 violent hostility. The evidence adduced crashed 

 in among accepted beliefs like the bomb of a 

 nihilist. Denunciation and ridicule were freely 

 employed against the new opinions. The 

 ' conspiracy of silence' was adopted wherever it 

 could be made effective. The social discourage- 

 ments, which we all more or less unconsciously 

 apply to those whose opinions we dislike, were no 

 doubt brought to bear as remorselessly as ever 

 upon the happiness and prosperity of many 

 outspoken geologists and evolutionists. But the 

 very fierceness of the controversies helped to 

 arouse attention and keep it awake. Besides, the 

 age was an age in which freedom had found her 

 voice, and the. country in which the controversy 

 began was the sworn lover of freedom. Hence it 

 came about that geology, the science which deals 

 not in warm life and lovely colours, but in mud 

 and stones and bones and old refuse, obtained a 

 predominance and a publicity which it could not 

 otherwise easily have secured. Persons of candid 

 mind would naturally wish to hear both sides of an 

 exciting question. Persons of pre-occupied mind 

 would still sometimes wish to see for themselves 

 what nonsense the geologists were writing. Of 

 course it was foolish of them, for if a man has 

 made up what he calls his mind, he ought never to 

 hear the other side. Anyhow, through wisdom 

 or through folly, by degrees the light of truth 

 was enabled to penetrate some of the darkest 

 corners of prejudice, and the process still 

 continues. 



" For truth to win any lasting and valuable 

 victory, it is essential that contradictory opinions 

 should be brought face to face. Facts so opposed 

 that they cannot be true together should be con- 

 fronted one with another, and the antagonism of 

 each to each made manifest and expressly declared. 

 Now, the men of science, with rare exception, 

 make no claim from the scientific point of view to 

 know what goes on in Heaven or in Hades ; but, 

 as I understand the matter, they are modestly 

 certain that our globe has lasted for hundreds 

 of thousands of years ; that within the human 

 period the whole of its surface has never been 

 submerged at once ; that no human being ever 

 lived to the age of nine hundred years ; that 

 the human species began quite otherwise than 

 with an abruptly created pair ; that no woman 

 was ever formed of a rib taken from the side 

 of a man ; that no serpent ever spoke with 

 human voice to tempt a woman, or for any 

 other purpose ; that no warrior, however noble 

 or sacred his cause, ever stayed for a single 

 instant the cosmical motion of earth, or moon, or 

 sun ; that the rainbow has exhibited the colours 

 of the solar spectrum to living eyes capable of 

 perceiving them in absolute independence of any 

 terrestrial inundation, past or future ; and that the 

 diversity of human languages, due to causes still 

 in operation, has been the result of gradual 

 divergence, not of any sudden supernatural inter- 

 vention. But again, as I understand the matter, a 

 large body of our pastors and masters, of men 



