﻿Otayo Institute. 419 



again tlie question suggests itself, why should sucli beneficial laws not come 

 into operation on this planet, as well as on others 1 I should not be surprised 

 if this liypotliesis were to generate a considerable amount of controversial 

 writing and discussion before very long. I therefore give you my views at 

 once, without being influenced by tbose of any others. I only hope that tliey 

 will not prove tedious to you. 



After reading that portion of Sir William Thomson's address whicli contains 

 ^the hypothesis criticised, Mr. Webb suggested that though some of Mr. Chap- 

 man's remarks would undoubtedly apply to organised beings of even a compara- 

 tively low type, it wa^ evident that these were not the forms of life Sir William 

 Thomson had in view. It was impossible to say how little such forms as the 

 globigerinse of the Atlantic dqDths might be affected by the conditions existing 

 on a meteoric mass. The fact that many aerolites exhibited but very slight 

 traces of surface vitrification showed that the heat to which they had been 

 subjected could not have been very excessive. He adduced other considera- 

 tions leading to the same conclusion. Evidently Sir William Thomson, who 

 was a firm supporter of the doctrine that the earth had once been a molten 

 mass, had thought this hypothesis necessary to explain the first appearance of 

 life on our planet after it had cooled down to a habitable condition. 



4. " Account of some Presents recently received from the Smithsonian 

 Institution and the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard College," by 

 J. S. Webb. 



(abstract.) 



The author stated that this was the first occasion on which a presentation 

 of this sort had been made to the Society by other than private individuals. 

 He then proceeded to give an interesting accoi*it of the origin and progress of 

 the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard College, stating that "the most 

 interesting feature to ourselves of the operations of the former institution is 

 the great system of international exchanges which it has inaugurated, and by 

 which we now profit for the first time. These exchanges are not confined to 

 books, and I hope that some day or other we may be able to court an inter- 

 change of museum specimens, which will be of great value to those who 

 piirsue the study of K'atural History. 



" In the foregoing account of the two great institutions, to which we are 

 indebted for these presents, the word 'dollars' has been reiterated in a con- 

 spicuous manner. I have laid this stress on it purposely, in order to present 

 a forcible contrast to the state of things here. It may be doubted whether this 

 Museum would now be in existence had the New Zealand Exhibition of 4865 

 not been organised by some enthusiastic spirits amongst us. Virtually, at the 

 end of six years, it still contains nothing more than a j)art of the collections 

 gathered from various sources for that exhibition. The enthusiasm and the 



