2G7 
ORDINARY MEETING, Apeil- 5, 1880. 
H. Cadman Jones, Esq., M.A., in the Chaie. 
The minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed, and the 
following elections were announced : — 
Member : — The Rev. Canon W. Ince, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity, 
Oxford. 
Associate : — Rev. G. Weaver, South Africa. 
The following paper was then read by the Rev. T. M. Gorman, M.A., the 
author being unavoidably absent : — 
LIFE AND ITS PHYSICAL BASIS. By H. Alleyne 
Nicholson, M.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.E., Professor of Natural 
History in the University of St. Andrews. 
“ Ante omnia itaque scire convenit, quid sit illud quod vulgata 
appellatione Vita dicitur ? In quo consistat formaliter ? Circa 
quid versetur et occupetur tarn materialiter seu subjective, quam 
finaliter et objective ? ” * 
T HE whole subject of the nature of life and of the connec- 
tion between vitality and the matter by which it is 
manifested, is one of such vastness and complexity that it 
would be impossible to treat it adequately, save in a special 
and extended treatise. Upon the present occasion, I need 
hardly say, I shall attempt nothing further than to give a brief 
and general sketch of the fundamental phenomena manifested 
by living beings, and of the more important considerations 
which, it appears to me, should guide us in arriving at some 
* G. E, Stahl, Theoria Medico, Vera, Ed. by Choulant. 1831. P.253. 
