638th ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING. 



Held in Committee Koom B, 



THE CENTRAL HALL, WESTMINSTER, S.W., on Monday, 

 February 6th, 1922, at 4.30 p.m. 



The Rev. J. J. B. Coles, M.A., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read, confirmed and signed 

 and the HON. SECRETARY announced the Election of the following as 

 Associates :— Charles Frederick Juritz. Esq., D.Sc, F.LC, F.R.S., S. Africa, 

 The Rev. W. Magee Douglas, B.A., and Miss Gladys Geary. 



The Chairman then introduced Dr. A. T. Schofield and invited him to 

 read his paper on " Some Difficulties of Evolution.'' 



SOME DIFFICULTIES OF EVOLUTION. 

 By ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD, Esq., M.D. 



My only claim to speak on a subject of which I know nothing 

 professionally, is that, having studied it a little exoterically for 

 the last 60 years, it may be of some mterest to note what diffi- 

 culties are obvious from the outside of the structure ; and I think 

 these can now be stated, apart from the intense heat and bias so 

 common sixty years ago, when Christians were more nervous 

 about the stability of the Scriptures than they are to-day. 



1. The first difficulty that strikes one is that the meaning and 

 the right use of the word Evolution are alike almost impossible to 

 discover. I see, for instance, that ten years ago Professor 

 Henslow apologised for assuming all the members of the Victoria 

 Institute were evolutionists, while in the very paper he had just 

 read he had radically altered the correct meaning of the word 

 itself. 



We are, however, accustomed in science to metaphorical and 

 allegorical terms or figures of speech that are often puzzling. 

 Take the word " Nature," for instance, a venerable goddess 

 known to science, who, as we all know, has no existence what- 

 ever; but, nevertheless, is credited with most wonderful and 

 unique powers. " She " can seal up the wound, repair the 

 damage, construct and vary all the forms of life and do so many 

 things at her own sweet will that sometimes we think " Nature 

 may mean God, sometimes our own unconscious mind, and some- 

 tim.es nothing at all. 



