90 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
address winch he delivered before the Geologists’ Association at the opening 
of the present session, and we heartily wish we could publish it in full in 
these pages ; for it is, without a question, the most able address that has been 
given to any geological society for many years. And this we say without any 
desire whatever to pay a compliment to the author. The whole tone of the 
address is calm, reasonable, and, above all, most philosophic as well. It is 
worthy of careful perusal, and we trust the Society has taken care to have 
it printed for private circulation among its members ; for we know of nothing 
better calculated to arouse the dormant philosophic spirit than this intel- 
ligent address. There is but one part that we will quote, and that relates 
to the Darwinian doctrine of evolution, which we are delighted to see the 
author completely adopts. He says it “ cannot be doubted that the majority 
of botanists and zoologists seem alike disposed to accept the doctrine of 
Evolution and Descent with Modification. There are still some scientific 
men, however, who find the derivative origin of species by descent repug- 
nant to their ideas. For the opinions of such I have the greatest possible 
respect, feeling sure that, up to a certain point, controversial opposition to 
new theories has its beneficial aspect in ridding us of worthless notions. 
But Darwin’s theory has already passed through the fire ; like crude ore it 
has been washed, sifted, crushed, roasted, and smelted, and at the end the 
pure metal remains. The only question is one of terms and names. Pro- 
fessor Owen, who is himself a most advanced evolutionist, if we may be per- 
mitted to judge of his views by his published works, prefers to hold the 
conviction that all forms and grades of both vertebrate and invertebrate life 
are due to ‘ secondary cause or law,’ not to 1 natural selection.’ Upon the 
nature of these very delicate and baffling distinctions I feel myself quite 
unable to enter on the present occasion. To the earnest seeker after truth it 
can never be an irreverent or idle object to investigate the process by which 
life has been gradually evolved on our earth; when, however, we have 
learned all that is in our power to discover, there is still the great problem 
of life itself unsolved, and we stand upon the threshold of the infinite.” 
A new Fossil Fish of unknown Age . — This is described by Dr. Traquair, 
of the College of Science, Dublin. Most interesting is his account of the 
structure of the upper surface of the bone near the posterior external angle. 
This is exactly similar to the structure of the scales and plates of many 
ganoid fishes. He says : “ The bone is here very thin, measuring only 
about jL inch in vertical section. Immediately below the surface is an 
absolutely structureless layer of transparent ganoine about inch thick. 
Through this, the punctures of the surface pass into a set of short vertical 
canals, each widening downwards so as to assume a rather conical figure. 
At their bases they are connected by horizontal tubes, and this system also 
communicates below with a close irregular network of ordinary Haversian 
canals, which ramify through the lower part of the section, and, becoming 
coarser below, cause the bone on its inferior aspect to assume almost a 
spongy appearance. The intervals between the set of short wide vertical 
canals, cup-shaped in the section, are seen to be each traversed by a ver- 
tical tube, which, coming up from the Haversian network below, soon 
divide in an arborescent manner into a great number of minute ramifying 
branches, which pass towards but not into the superficial layer of struc- 
