ORDINAEY GENERAL MEETING* 



Eev. G. E. Whidborne, M.A., F.G.S., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed and the 

 following election took place : — 



Associate : — William Warry, Esq., MA. (Oxon.). 

 The following paper was then read : — 



THE LIVING GOD OF LIVING NATURE FROM THE 

 SCIENCE SIDE. By Professor Lionel S. Beale, 

 F.RC.R, F.R.S. 



BEFORE reading the paper I should like to make an obser- 

 vation particularly with regard to the point that of all the 

 broad questions left for us to consider, and I trust to determine, 

 bearing upon the most important principles open to human 

 knowledge and investigation, is the one which I venture to lay 

 before you of the relation between living and lifeless matter. 

 The difference between the extreme opinions with regard to 

 the relation of life to matter is now most extraordinary. Many 

 observers and thinkers insist that living things and lifeless 

 things all belong to one category, while others believe that the 

 distinction between life and non-life is simply absolute : that 

 there is no relation at all between matter that is alive and 

 matter that is not alive ; that they are quite distinct, and thai 

 life depends, as far as it has yet been reached, not upon any 



Tuesday, June 2nd, 1903. 



