93 



ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING, 



WAS HELD IX THE ROOMS OF THE INSTITUTE, ON 

 MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5th, 1906. 



Colonel Hendley, CLE., ix the Chah:. 



Tlie Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and contirnied. 



Tlie following elections took j)lace : — 

 Member : — Joshua Ratynski Hershensohnn, Esq., Pieterniaritzburg. 

 Associate : — Edmund Eaton, Esq., C.E., Ticehurst. 



The following paper was read by the Author : — 



BIOLOGICAL CHANGE IX GEOLOGICAL TIME. 

 By Professor J. Logan Loblev, F.CJ.S., F.R.CJ.S. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 



Introduction i)3 



Geological time ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 95 



Biological change... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 98 



Pei-sistency of types ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 101 



Change and environment ... ... ... ... ... ... 105 



Extinctions ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 107 



Causes of biological change 109 



Introduction. 



THE pa])er read before the Victoria Institute last session, 

 entitled " Geoloj^Mcal Exterminations,"* seems Lo call for 

 a more extended reply than the time allowed for discussion 

 permitted. Any ade(|uate consideration of the subject must be 

 founded upon, in the first place, a careful estimate of the facts 

 revealed by pala-ontolo^ieal research not only with respect to 

 the termination of the existence of species and j^^enera, but also 

 with respect to the character, morphological and physiological, 

 of the species and genera existing both before and after these 

 extinctions. And, furthermore, notice must be taken of the 

 persistence of certain genera tiirough vast geological ])eriods 

 during which other and allied genera had but a comparatively 

 short existence. 



* " Geological Exterminations," by Charles B. Warring, M.A., Ph.D., 



Journal of the Victoria Institute^ vol. xxxvii, p. 105. 



