330 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



scientific. That man existed along with the mammoth and 

 rhinoceros, and that these animals are now extinct, does 

 not prove that a long period must have elapsed in order to 

 allow them to perish by a gradual decay ; it rather leads to 

 the inference that they were destroyed by the weapons of 

 man. That rude implements of flint were first employed, 

 and afterwards implements of bone, horn, or bronze, of a 

 more artificial construction, is to be ascribed to the fact that 

 spears pointed with flint were the most effective weapons 

 that could be used against the larger mammalia, in the same 

 way as the spears of the negroes are used in killing the 

 elephants of Africa ; and that, when the larger game became 

 scarce, weapons of a lighter but more artificial construction 

 were required in attacking the smaller but swifter animals. 

 Improvement in manufactures, moreover, does not neces- 

 sarily imply a long period to allow the aboriginal tribes to 

 perfect their fabrics, but is rather to be ascribed to the 

 coming in of more cultivated races, who may possibly have 

 exterminated the former inhabitants. The change from a 

 boreal to a temperate climate must be ascribed to some 

 physical change on the surface of the globe. These changes 

 are sometimes slow, but more generally they are rapid ; and 

 a geological change altering the currents of the Atlantic 

 might in a single season bring back on Britain all the 

 rigours of the glacial epoch. He could not, therefore, agree 

 in Mr Page's conclusions. 



Wednesday, December 27, 1865. — William Turner, M B., President, 



in the Chair. 



The following Gentlemen were elected Office-Bearers for the Session : — 



Presidents.— William Turner, M.B. ; Thomas Strethill Wright, M.D. ; 

 Stevenson Macadam, Ph.D. 



Council.— Alexander Bryson, Esq. ; James M'Bain, M.D.; Ramsay 

 H. Traquair, M.D. ; David Page, Esq.; Professor John Duns, D.D. ; 

 William Rhind, Esq. 



Secretary. — John Alexander Smith, M.D. 



Treasurer.— George Logan, Esq , W.S. 



Assistant- Secretary . — James Boyd Davies, Esq. 



Librarian. — Andrew Taylor, Esq. 



Library Committee — Thomas Robertson, Esq., Andrew Taylor, Esq. 



