38 



then enumerated the kinds of objects the beginner should devote 

 his attention to, and explained, with the clearness of a practised 

 manipulator, the various methods of mounting objects for the 

 cabinet. 



February 18th. — The annual Exhibition of Microscopes and 

 Microscopic objects took place on this evening, when the members 

 brought their microscopes, and such objects of interest as they had 

 added to their collections during the past year. Some slides were 

 exhibited to illustrate the practical result of Mr. Mills' instruction, 

 and were considered most successful. 



On the 4th March, a paper on " Archseic Anthropology" was 

 read by J. S. Holden, M.D., F.A.S.L., of Glenarm. He stated 

 that the object of anthropology was not to prove the ape origin of 

 man, as was generally supposed, but to study the natural history 

 of man, as he was and as he is. Its present position resembles 

 astronomy and geology in their early days, when they had to battle 

 against popular prejudice and hereditary lines of thought, and it, like 

 them, will triumph. Palaeontology has revealed that the past life 

 on our globe evidences an orderly succession and progression in the 

 arrival of its numerous species, more an ideal than a perfectly con- 

 tinuous lineal series, as many blanks occur in the gallery of nature, 

 "missing links," which may or may not be recovered. Yet there 

 are enough facts to prove the transition from species to species, as 

 the law of the animal kingdom. How does this law operate ? is 

 man's legitimate inquiry ; and, as no law of nature is revealed, it 

 must be sought for in nature itself; and just as Helper pursued the 

 planets through many circles and curves before he discovered their 

 true elliptic orbits, so many theories will be exhausted before the 

 secret law controlling animal series is arrived at. The doctrines of 

 transcendental anatom} r , first brought forward by Oken and Goethe, 

 that all animals are formed on one great plan, was accepted by 

 Cuvier and elucidated by Owen, while Darwin, to explain the con- 

 tinuity of the plan, started the bold theory of natural selection. 



