§2 REV, G. F. WHIDBORNE, M.A., F.G.S., ON 



writing; and then some little time afterwards, I was very much 

 struck with these words of our Lord, " He was a murderer from the 

 beginning." The Greek word may be " man-slayer," but it seemed 

 to me as though, very probably, it has a deeper meaning than that 

 which we should naturally place on it, and which, no doubt, was its 

 special meaning. But the words that struck me there were "from 

 the beginning." It seemed to me as though our Lord were pointing 

 right away back; though possibly in His time the people could 

 only have a near view. But now, as we have learnt more about 

 the creation of the world and have gone further back in time than 

 they knew then, so we know there was a point further back than 

 was thought of then ; and it certainly does seem to explain to us 

 that a great deal of death and suffering occurred before, in a way 

 that was certainly not then explained to us by anybody elseAvhere, 

 and which is remarkable as an explanation given us long before 

 any scientific person raised the difficulty — before the science of the 

 nineteenth century was dreamt of. 



The Chairman. — Every member of the Listitute must feel 

 grateful to Mr. Whidborne for his paper. I trust it indicates that 

 a change has taken place in the views that many of us held, and 

 that more papers of the same kind will be brought before the 

 Institute. ; 



The Meeting then adjourned. 



Communications. 

 The following communications have been received. 

 From Dr. D. Biddle, M.K.C.S.— 



There is one passage in this interesting paper which seems to me 

 to need revising. The author says, " Certainly the matter of the 

 brain did not come into existence by thinking, as certainly thought 

 cannot owe its origin to the mere mechanical structure of the brain." 

 In a sense this is true, but only to the same extent that the growth 

 of muscle is due, not to exercise, but to some other cause acting 

 correlatively. The brain of a person who thinks grows in accordance 

 with his thoughts. Every thought is dependent on the structure of 

 the brain for its conception, and in return produces a definite effect 

 upon that structure. Memory, one of the chief elements of thought, 

 belongs almost (if not quite) exclusively to the brain, of which the 



