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, Decemler 27 i 1865.— William Turner, M B., President, 
in the CLair. 
The following Gentlemen were elected Office-Bearers for the Session :— 
Presidents.— WiWiaim Turner, M.B. ; Thomas Strethill Wright, M.D. ; 
Stevenson Macadam, Ph.D. 
Couna7.— 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. 
Libmry Committee — Thomas Robertson, Esq., Andrew Taylor, Esq. 
