134 PROFESSOR LIONEL BEALE^ F.R.C.P., P.R.S., ON THE 



Now, the important proof in our investigations, to my mind, lies 

 in the absohite certainty, as I hope it does to yours, that there is 

 something that we do not know. It is important, then, to come to- 

 that knowledge if it will save us from infinite mistakes. Our late 

 distinguished President always impressed me, when speaking on a 

 scientific subject, by the absolute humility with which he said he 

 did not know, and, therefore, it seems that until we are willing to 

 confess our ignorance of what life is, from a scientific point of view, 

 we shall know nothing of it. 



I most earnestly commend this paper to your careful attention. 

 The conclusions that are drawn in it by the author are so entirely 

 — perhaps I should not say what I agree with, for I am incapable of 

 following all those masterly arguments — but I have felt, following 

 them at a distance, that they show clearly there is nothing that can 

 conceivably explain the mystery of life without the Living One 

 outside. How can I express it 1 The Living One Who is not the. 

 living thing, but the source of the living thing. We come back to 

 the words of Holy Scripture, where God is spoken of as Him in 

 whom " we live and move and have our being." 



Let us hope that in the confession of our ignorance we may rise 

 to higher truth — that we may rise from not knowing the difference 

 between the dead and living, or the physical and spiritual, to the 

 higher and deeper knowledge of the spiritual. 



Eev. F. A. AValker, D.D. — If I might select one or two points 

 out of the admirable and learned essay we have just listened to, I 

 should be very glad to put to the author this question : M^hat is 

 the lowest degree of cold that he thinks living organisms can exist 

 in, and the highest degree of heat 1"^ 



Dr. Wood-Smyth. — This is the first time I have had the privilege 

 of attending at the Victoria Institute, and it has been a great delight 

 to me to hear Professor Beale on this subject, because the most 

 exhaustive researches I ever made in my life were made years ago 

 on the lines of his work. 



I went over his experiments, one by one almost, and found them, 



As Dr. Beale does not appear to have given a direct answer I may 

 suggest — between the temperature at which albumen coagulates (165° F.) 

 ancl the zero of Fahr. for unprotected animals. — E. H. 



