531st OEDINARY GENERAL MEETmG. 



MONDAY, APRIL IStii, 1912, at 4.30 p.m. 



Pkofessor Edward Hull, LL.D., F.R.S., Vice-President, 

 TOOK THE Chair. 



The Mimites of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed, and 

 the following elections were announced : — 



Associates : The Rev. D. A. Stewart, M.A. ; G. W. Maunder, Esq. 



The Chairman : I have the pleasure to introduce to the ]\ [embers 

 of the Institute the Rev. Professor Henslow, who through a long 

 and useful life has been investigating the structure and origin of 

 plants and animals, and will expound to you his views on one of the 

 most mysterious of physical problems, the development of species as 

 far as human investigation is capable of carrying us under the term 

 of "Directivity," which for good reasons he prefers to that of 

 Darwin under the term of "Natural Selection." If the problem 

 is incapable of solution at the lecturer's hands, it is only because it 

 baffles the ken of human investigation. 



ADAPTATIONS IN PLANTS AND ANIMALS TO 

 THEIR CONDITIONS OF LIFE ABE THE RESULT 

 OF THE DIRECTIVITY OF LLFE. By the Rev. 

 Professor G. Henslow, M.A., E.L.S., etc. 



IN studying nature one must clearly understand what we 

 mean by Natural Science, and what are the methods of 

 proof at our command to establish any theory or interpretation 

 of nature's methods of procedure. Apart from Psychology, 

 natural science embraces : (1) the accumulation and classifica- 

 tion of facts appreciable by the senses ; (2) the investigation 



