1889-90.] Mr C. Michie Smith on Volcanic Eruption. 
71 
others which appear to resemble it closely, and in travelling through 
Japan I came upon another very striking example of this kind of 
action. This was near Ikao — famous for its hot springs — where there 
is an old crater of large size, one wall of which has been completely 
blown away and scattered over a considerable tract of country. 
Standing on the top of the remaining crater-wall, one can still trace 
the path of the torrent of debris, and the section made by a stream 
which passes through it shows no signs of lava, but only materials 
similar to those found at Bandaisan. The surface is now covered 
with vegetation, but there are few trees on it, and such as there are 
are low and stunted, while it is surrounded by healthy-looking 
woods. 
On Evolution and Man’s Place in Nature. 
By Professor Calderwood. 
(Read January 27, 1890.) 
My aim in this paper will be to present as concisely as possible 
the problems involved in Man’s Place in Nature, and to consider 
briefly how far an evolution theory contributes towards the solu- 
tion of these problems. 
Needful preliminaries can be disposed of briefly. We are agreed 
that evolution is “a change from an indefinite, incoherent homo- 
geneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, through continuous 
differentiations and integrations.” We are agreed that this process 
is to be taken as applicable in the history of matter and motion, 
and afterwards in the history of organised existence, raising the 
whole problem of biology. We do not require here to linger over 
the transition from the one to the other, as all requirements are met 
by accepting life and its laws as facts, and acquiescing in Darwin’s 
hypothesis of one or more primordial germs. Next, we take 
Darwin’s laws as applicable in the history of organism. These are 
briefly — (1) struggle for existence, with survival of the fittest; (2) 
adaptation to environment ; (3) hereditary transmission of acquired 
adaptations. We do not need to raise the debate between Darwin’s 
view and Weismann’s as to hereditary transmission, with its two- 
fold bearing, as it concerns mode of transmission and the time 
