X 
PREFACE. 
the extreme views incautiously advanced by many, tended 
alike to injure the cause of Science and those higher interests 
with which the Society has also identified itself. In carrying 
out these geological researches the Institute has sought, 
in pursuance of its primary object, “ to investigate fully and 
impartially.” In the present state of the controversy we 
can only discern that cautious accurate inquiry, and an 
avoidance of imperfect generalizations and hasty conclusions, 
will promote the cause of Truth, and bring Science back into 
greater harmony with Revelation.* 
Of late, men of science have often found reason to urge that 
there is a real necessity for the use of greater caution and an 
avoidance of hasty conclusion in regard to matters of Scientific 
investigation, and we venture to quote the following remarks 
in this direction made by Professor Virchow, when recently 
alluding to the Darwinian hypothesis : — 
“ We cannot pronounce it to be a conquest of science that man descends 
from the ape or from any other animal. We can only indicate it as an 
hypothesis, however probable it may seem. Let us hope the men of science 
in England will not fail to examine this most serious question — whether the 
authority of science will not be better served if it confines itself strictly to 
its own province, than if it undertakes to master the whole view of nature by 
the premature generalization 6f theoretical combinations. We must really 
acknowledge that there is a complete absence of any fossil type of a lower 
stage in the development of man. T am bound to declare that any positive 
advance which has been made in the province of pre-historic anthropology 
has actually removed us further from the proof of such connection — namely, 
with the rest of the animal kingdom.” 
The present Volume will also be found to indicate the first 
success of the new arrangements for securing the greater use- 
fulness of the Journal of Transactions to country and foreign 
Members, and affording them facilities for contributing papers 
* Volume XIV. will contain a paper upon this subject by one who now 
stands foremost in the scientific world. 
