118 PROF. ERNEST W. MACBRIDE, M.A._, F.R.S._, ON 



laws. May we not think it very probable that future research may 

 prove that this is so in all cases 1 Dr. Wallace, in The World of 

 Life, does not appear to attach much importance to Mendelism, 

 but the whole argument of that book tends to show how the 

 progress of the organic world throughout the ages has been 

 governed by natural laws, while still these laws have clearly been 

 controlled by purpose and design. 



Mr. M. L. Rouse said : My brother and I, when we were boys, 

 started with a'stock of pigeons of six or seven varieties, including 

 Jacobins and Fantails, in a cote where no enemy could reach them, 

 and we saw with disappointment in eight years all the pigeons assume 

 the plain form and slate-blue colour of the wild sorts, with here and 

 there a white or bronzy quill. 



A Member : On p. 94 the Lecturer asks why we claim for species 

 a special creation and not for variations, but surely he answers 

 us on p. 102 : " Two natural species either refuse to cross, etc." 



Again, it has been proved by Mendelian experiments upon beans, 

 that the curve of error is the same for the beans which have started 

 with a single large bean and have gone on to fertilization as the 

 beans raised from a small progenitor. This shows there is a general 

 tendency to a mean size. 



On the other hand, it is found very difficult to keep up a special 

 stock of cattle, for instance, or of seed corn, unless you occasionally 

 introduce other races or varieties. I know that was done years ago 

 with short-horned cattle, and of course it is relations which have 

 these common signs or characters. 



As regards the problem of the multiplication of animals, and 

 how it is that such a number are born into the world and so few 

 survive, I may say that in Canada and the States sparrows have 

 spread to the town and have multiplied to a far greater extent ; but 

 usually they did not increase to that degree, but surely the Creator 

 intended that the larger animals should feed upon them. The fact 

 that one animal preys upon another is a far better way of disposing 

 of them than if the ground was covered with their dead bodies. 



The Rev. M. Anstey said the meaning of the word " variation " 

 had never been explained. He doubted whether it had any meaning 

 at all. It was a word used by us to cover up the fact of our 

 ignorance. Like the word " chance," it meant nothing. We all 

 knew that there was no such thing as chance. There was no room 



