876 
open our eyes to the necessity of allowing a far longer period to have 
intervened since the original creation of man than is usually assigned ; at 
any rate, I can see no other way of accounting for the circumstance I have 
pointed out. We know, with regard to the chronology of the Bible, that the 
period which has been deduced from it is not at all probable, and it 
is a somewhat unfortunate circumstance that we should have been 
taught that which has been commonly accepted in reference to the Bible 
chronology, because many people have made it a matter of faith to such an 
extent that they seem to think we are destroying the Bible itself if we throw 
aside this chronology. Nevertheless, this is a conclusion to which the long- 
preserved variety of type among mankind seems to necessarily point — 
viz., that man has existed for a very much longer period of years than can 
be ascertained from any system of chronology with which I am acquainted. 
I thought it might be interesting to the meeting to open up some subject 
of this kind which had not been specially discussed in the paper ; 
and I would suggest, for the consideration of its author, the definite lines in 
which the variations of mankind have taken place, and been so long pre- 
served. I may add that'I did not quite understand what was said on the 
subject of botany. In speaking of grasses, such as wheat and the different 
varieties of grain, being of the same family, I did not understand whether 
the author used the word family in the same way as when he speaks of the 
different varieties of mankind being of one family, or whether he supposes 
that each of these varieties is what may be termed a distinct creation. 
Mr. Weldon. — I meant in the ordinary sense of order. 
Dr. Currey. — But it would seem to be put in the same way, as we have 
different varieties of the human race, all coming from one species, so, by 
analogy, we might suppose that all the varieties of grasses came from one 
stock. This has not been really touched upon, and it is not necessary that it 
should be determined at all. I have, perhaps, said enough to lead to open 
up some points of interesting discussion; and I would direct especial atten- 
tion to that part which strikes me as being especially interesting — viz., 
the question as to the varieties of mankind ; the definite lines in which those 
variations have been maintained ; and the long period during which they 
have occupied precisely the same lines and no others. This seems to me to 
be a different kind of variety from the variety which arises from individual 
degeneration. 
Rev. C. A. Row. — There have been few papers read in this room to which 
I have felt able to give a more cordial approval than to the one we have 
heard to-night. In fact, there is only one sentence in it with which I 
dissent as conveying what I conceive to be an untrue statement of fact ; and 
that is the passage respecting the testimony to the historical character of the 
Deluge, supposed to be derived from the recently- discovered stone inscrip- 
tion. After reading the accounts v of that discovery as they have been 
published in the newspapers, I cannot see that it affords historical 
testimony to the occurrence of the flood. To me it seems to prove that 
