152 



THE NATURALIST. 



chair he would take the opportunity of 

 ■assuring them that he should always look 

 back with pride and pleasure to having 

 been thought worthy by them to be one of 

 the presidents of the British Association. 

 As he knew they were all impatient to 

 hear the address, which Professor Phillips 

 had prepared, he would not detain them 

 any longer, but beg of him to take the 

 chair. 



Professor Phillips then delivered the 

 address, which was frequently interrupted 

 with hearty applause. On reading that por- 

 tion referring to the labours of the late Cap- 

 tain Speke and Sir John Franklin, Profes- 

 sor Phillips was deeply moved. The address 

 was an eloquent and complete resume of 

 the advancement of science in every 

 department and contained the following 

 reference to the Science of Zoology : — 



" Ever since the days of Aristotle, the 

 analogy existing among all parts of the 

 animal kingdom, and in a general sense 

 we may say among all the forms of life, 

 has become more and more the subject of 

 special study. Related as all living beings 

 are to the element in which they move and 

 breathe, to the mechanical energies of 

 nature which they employ or resist, and to 

 the molecular forces which penetrate and 

 transform them, some general conformity 

 of structure, some fi'equently recurring re- 

 semblance of function must be present, 

 and cannot be overlooked. In the several 

 classes this analogy grows stronger, and in 

 the subdivisions of these classes real family 

 afl&nity is recognised. In the smallest 

 divisions which have this family relation 

 to the highest degree, there seems to be a 

 line which circumscribes each group, 

 within which variations occur, from food, 

 exercise, climate, and transmitted pecu- 

 liarities. Often one specific group ap- 

 proaches another, or several others, and a 

 question arises whether, though now dis- 

 tinct, or rather distinguishable, they 

 always have been so from their beginning, 

 or will be always so until their disappear- 

 ance. 



Whether what we call species are so 

 many original creations or derivations 

 from a few types or one type, is discussed 

 at length in the elegant treatise of Darwin, 

 himself a naturalist of eminent rank. It 

 had been often discussed before. Nor will 

 any one think lightly of such enquiries, 

 who remembers the essays of Linnaeus, 

 " De Tdluris orhis incremento" or the in- 

 vestigations of Brown, Pritchard, Porbes, 

 Agassiz, and Hooker regarding the local 

 origin of different species, genera, and 

 families ot plants and animals, both on the 

 land and in the sea. Still less will he be 

 disposed to undervalue its importance, 

 when he reflects on the many successive 

 races of living forms more ar less resem- 

 bling our existing quadrupeds, reptiles, 

 fishes, and moUusca, which appear to have 

 occupied definite and different parts of the 

 depths of ancient time ; as now the tiger 

 and the jaguar, the cayman and the ga vial, 

 live on different parts of the terrestrial 

 surface. Is the living elephant of Ceylon 

 the lineal descendant of that mammoth 

 which roamed over Siberia and Europe and 

 North America, or of one of those sub- 

 Himalayan tribes which Dr. Falconer has 

 made known, or was it a species dwelling 

 only in circumpolar regions ? Can our 

 domestic cattle, horses and dogs, our beasts 

 of chase and our beasts of prey, be traced 

 back to their soiirce in older types, con- 

 temporaries of the urus, megaceros, and 

 hysena on the plains of Europe ? If so, 

 what range of variation in structure does 

 it indicate ? If not so, by what characters 

 are the living races separated from those of 

 earlier date ? 



"Specific questions of this kind must be 

 answered, before the general proposition, 

 that the forms of life are indefinitely vari- 

 able with time and circumstance, can be 

 even examined by the light of adequate 

 evidence. That such evidence will be 

 gathered and rightly interpreted I for 

 one neither doubt nor fear ; nor will any 

 be too hasty in adopting extreme opinions, 

 or too fearful of the final result, who re- 



