( xxi ) 



whole. I cannot see," lie continues, " why there may not be, in or- 

 ganic life, a similar process of evolution from lower to higher forms of 

 existence ; but it is a teleological evolution, in which every step and 

 every result was foreseen and planned beforehand. The laws of such 

 an evolution appear to me, in the present state of oar knowledge, to be 

 utterly unknown." 



This argument from the evidence of design runs through and is felt 

 in every anatomical observation and every mathematical conclusion of 

 Professor Haughton's work ; and it seems as if the teleological evi- 

 dence of a Divine Contriver is as immeasurable as the limitless series of 

 beings endowed with life. 



That the value of the contributions to Biology in our " Proceedings " 

 seems to be inversely as their number appears when the list of their 

 authors, after Dr. Haughton, is considered. Of these, the papers of Dr. 

 Macalister are the most numerous and important, especially those re- 

 lating to Muscular Anomalies in Human Anatomy, and their bearing on 

 Homotypical Myology. These important memoirs, dealing with Human 

 and Comparative Anatomy, are eminently calculated to reflect honour 

 on their author, and to advance the study of Biology. 



I would also specify the observations by Dr. Hayden on the Devi- 

 ation of the Protruded Tongue in Unilateral Paralysis, and those by Dr. 

 Purser on Suppuration and Inflammation, which are embodied in his 

 Report on the Researches of Cohnheim. 



I may here allude to the researches of Mr. Mackintosh on the 

 Anatomy of the Sloths and the Coati-mundi. These papers must 

 always be looked on as an important addition to our Proceedings ; 

 while the description by Dr. Collins of an additional lobe of the 

 human lung has appeared in our Transactions. 



When the phj'siological and histological laboratory has been com- 

 pleted in Trinity College, under the care of Professor Purser, we may 

 look for important results. "We may hope to compete with the labora- 

 tories of Cambridge, under Professor Poster, and of Edinburgh, where 

 such singular results as to the influence of the compounds of the vege- 

 table alkaloids with the organic bases Ethyl and Methyl have been 

 arrived at by Drs. Crum Brown and Frazer, with respect to the substitu- 

 tion compounds of the alkaloids with the organic bases. Thus the Methj'l 

 strychnia acts as a pure spinal sedative, while the Ethyl- eonia and 

 Ethyl-atropia are more active, physiologically, than the pure alkaloids. 



