Peesentation of Memorial to De. Daewix. 



67 



of natural knowledge, is the scientific basis you have given to the grand 

 doctrine of evolution. Other naturalists, as you yourself have shown, had 

 endeavoured to unravel the questions that had arisen respecting the 

 origin, classification, and distribution of organic beings, and had even 

 obtained faint glimpses of the transformation of specific forms. But it 

 was left to you to show, almost to demonstration, that the variations 

 which species of plants and animals exhibit, and in natiu-al selection 

 through the struggle for existence, we have causes at once natural, 

 universal and efiective, wdiich of themselves are competent not only to 

 explain the existence of the present races of living beings, but also to 

 connect with them, and with one another, the long array of extinct forms 

 with which the palaeontologist has made us familiar. 



Further, the Yorkshire naturalists are anxious to place on record their 

 firm conviction that in the care, the patience, and the scrupulous con- 

 scientiousness with which all your researches have been conducted ; in 

 the ingenuity of the experiments you have devised : and in the repeated 

 verifications to which your results have been submitted by your own 

 hands, you have furnished an example of the true method of biological 

 inquiry that succeeding generations will deem it an honour to follow, and 

 that cannot, but lead to still further conquests in the domain of organic 

 nature. 



In presenting this small tribute of their high regard and esteem, the 

 members of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union cannot but hope and pray 

 that many years of happiness and usefulness may yet remain to you, and 

 that our science and literature may be still further enriched with the 

 results of your researches. 



William C. Williamson, F.R.S., President. 

 H. C. iSoRBY, LL.D., F.R.S., Yice-President. 

 George Brook, ter., F.L.S., Secretary. 

 Wm. Denison Roebuck, Secretary. 

 Thomas Lister, President, Yertebrate Section. 

 Wm. Eagle Clarke, M.B.O.U., Secretary, Yertebrate Section. 

 Wm. Cash, F.G-.S., President, Conchological Section. 

 J. Darker Butterell, Secretary, Conchological Section. 

 Geo. T. Porritt, F.L.S., President, Entomological Section. 

 S. D. Bairstow, F.L.S., Secretary, Entomological Section. 

 Chas. P. HoBKiRK, F.L.S., President, Botanical Section. 

 F. Arnold Lees, F.L.S., Secretary, Botanical Section. 

 Wm. West, Secretary, Botanical Section. 

 Jas. W. Davis, F.S.A., F.L.S., F.G.S. X 



Thomas Hick, B.A., B.Sc, / 



August, 1880. 



Since the return of the deputation a letter has been received from 

 Dr. Darwin by Mr. AY. D, Eoebuck, in which he writes : — " The 

 address which was presented to me is certainly one of the greatest 



