PREFACE. 
Vll 
other habits of primitive men and of the condition of man in the earliest 
historic times, the greater completeness of our conceptions as to the pheno- 
mena of life and their relation to organizable matters — all these, and many 
other aspects of the later progress of science, must tend to bring it back into 
greater harmony with revealed religion.” 
In conclusion, a reference may be made to some of the 
more remarkable results of scientific inquiry during the past 
year. 
In 1874 this Institute bad the privilege of joining the 
leading scientific societies in urging adequate preparations for 
observing the then approaching transit of Venus; the result 
from the English observations of Ingress and Egress, so far 
as they have been ascertained, is now found to be a mean 
parallax of 8,760", corresponding to a mean distance of the 
Earth from the Sun equal to 93,300,000 miles ; the results 
of the foreign observations have yet to come. 
The discovery by Professor Asaph Hall of the satellites 
of Mars has been characterised bv M. Leverrier as “ une des 
« > 
plus importantes observations de Pastronomie moderne.'” 
I am indebted to a member for the following : — 
“ The recent searching investigations of Professor Tyndall, Dr. Burdon 
Sanderson, Professor Lister, and others, have forcibly shown that there is 
no reliable foundation for the theory of ‘ spontaneous generation,’ or as 
it is now more logically termed, ‘ abiogenesis,’ i.e. the development of life 
without any influence derived from pre-existing life. Professor Lister has 
recently shown that the lactic acid fermentation of milk (the ordinary pro- 
cess of turning sour) does not take place without the presence of a peculiar 
organism ; of which if the invisible germs be excluded, the milk remains 
sweet for an almost indefinite period of time. And Professor Tvndall has 
observed that if fluids the most prone to decomposition and the develop- 
ment of organic life be carefully exposed to the pure air wafted over the 
snow-clad summits of the Alps, they undergo no change.” 
F. PETRIE, 
Hon. Sec. and Editor. 
December 31 , 1877 . 
