ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. CXV 



of our science, and which has been argued with great abihty by one 

 of the most philosophical writers of the day. I allude to the Essay 

 of Professor Baden Powell on the Philosophy of Creation. One of 

 the many great and transcendental questions discussed in this Essay 

 is the controversy as to whether we are to give a preference to the old 

 doctrine of the immutability of species, or to the more recently in- 

 troduced theory of transmutation. The question is undoubtedly one 

 of great difficulty, but it is not the less necessary that we should 

 endeavour to form a definite opinion on the subject, founded on the 

 fullest and most authentic information we can obtain. It may in- 

 deed, in some respects, be said to be one of the most important 

 questions in geological investigation. Why do we endeavour to ob- 

 tain correct information respecting the true order and arrangement 

 of stratification ? Why do we endeavour to obtain the most perfect 

 collections of the organic remains of each stratum and formation, and 

 to ascertain the different classes and groups of organized beings which 

 have dwelt and flourished on the surface of the globe at the different 

 periods of its existence ? Surely not for the sake of such collections 

 and such knowledge of stratification 'per se. For, although, owing to 

 peculiar circumstances, many geologists may not have the opportu- 

 nity of carrying their investigations beyond these points, it should 

 never be forgotten that all such information is but a stepping-stone 

 to higher generahzations. It is but the alphabet of one of the lan- 

 guages in which Nature speaks to us, and by means of which we 

 must endeavour to unravel the past history of our globe, and to form 

 some idea, so far as our finite faculties permit us, of the first origin, 

 and inductively of the final objects, of creation. In this point of view, 

 the question as to the immutability or transmutation of species is 

 one which touches the very existence of our science, and I am there- 

 fore desirous of briefly pointing out what appears to be a fallacy in 

 some of the statements of Prof. Powell on this subject. 



The arguments of the various writers on both sides are fully and 

 fairly given in this work, and the author professes merely to point out 

 the bearings of the question, the difficulties in which it is involved, and 

 to controvert what he considers hasty and untenable assertions on either 

 side. But while doing this, it is impossible to avoid the conviction 

 that he has a decided bias to one side, that he considers the doctrine 

 of transmutation of species more consistent with sound philosophical 

 induction than what he calls the hypothesis of an eternal immuta- 

 bility. I shall not pretend to occupy your time by going through 

 arguments so well known to every palaeontologist and geologist. I 

 only wish, as I said before, to point out one or two conclusions which 

 involve what appear to me a fallacy. 



After showing how the successive investigations of the great com- 

 parative anatomists and zoologists of the last half- century have re- 

 sulted in the establishment of the doctrine of the unity of compo- 

 sition of animal forms, a result to which the researches of Prof. Owen 

 have mainly contributed, he proceeds to the examination of the 

 question of species. He points out the existence of subspecies and 

 varieties, many of which become permanent, and alludes to the 



