376 



open our eyes to the necessity of allowing a far longer period to have 

 intervened since the original creation of man than is usually assigned ; at 

 any rate, I can see no other way of accounting for the circumstance I have 

 pointed out. "We know, with regard to the chronology of the Bible, that the 

 period which has been deduced from it is not at all probable, and it 

 is a somewhat unfortunate circumstance that we should have been 

 taught that which has been commonly accepted in reference to the Bible 

 chronology, because many people have made it a matter of faith to such an 

 extent that they seem to think we are destroying the Bible itself if we throw 

 aside this chronology. Nevertheless, this is a conclusion to which the long- 

 preserved variety of type among mankind seems to necessarily point — 

 viz., that man has existed for a very much longer period of years than can 

 be ascertained from any system of chronology with which I am acquainted. 

 I thought it might be interesting to the meeting to open up some subject 

 of this kind which had not been specially discussed in the paper ; 

 and I would suggest, for the consideration of its author, the definite lines in 

 which the variations of mankind have taken place, and been so long pre- 

 served. I may add that I did not quite understand what was said on the 

 subject of botany. In speaking of grasses, such as wheat and the different 

 varieties of grain, being of the same family, I did not understand whether 

 the author used the word family in the same way as when he speaks of the 

 different varieties of mankind being of one family, or whether he supposes 

 that each of these varieties is what may be termed a distinct creation. 



Mr. "SVeldo>'. — I meant in the ordinary sense of order. 



Dr. CuRKEY. — But it would seem to be put in the same way, as we have 

 different varieties of the human race, all coming from one species, so, by 

 analogy, we might suppose that all the varieties of grasses came from one 

 stock. This has not been really touched upon, and it is not necessary that it 

 should be determined at all. I have, perhaps, said enough to lead to open 

 up some points of interesting discussion; and I would direct especial atten- 

 tion to that part which strikes me as being especially interesting — viz., 

 the question as to the varieties of mankind ; the definite lines in which those 

 variations have been maintained ; and the long period during which they 

 have occupied precisely the same lines and no others. This seems to me to 

 be a different kind of variety from the variety which arises from individual 

 degeneration. 



Eev. C. A. Eow. — There have been few papers read in this room to which 

 I have felt able to give a more cordial approval than to the one we have 

 heard to-night. In fact, there is only one sentence in it with which I 

 dissent as conveying what I conceive to be an untrue statement of fact ; and 

 that is the passage respecting the testimony to the historical character of the 

 Deluge, supposed to be derived from the recently- discovered stone inscrip- 

 tion. After reading the accounts of that discovery as they have been 

 published in the newspapers, I cannot see that it affords historical 

 testimony to the occurrence of the flood. To me it seems to prove that 



