29 
P.S. — Doctor Eobinson has since been so kind as to explain 
to me his meaning when he says that the principle of the Sur- 
vival of the Fittest does not apply to water. The following 
quotations from his letter will help the reader to see the 
substance of his explanation. He says — Water has qualities 
which cannot be explained by the ^ survival^ hypothesis, but 
which have a remarkable adaptation to the occupation of the 
Earth by living beings."’^ Some of these qualities are, ‘^the 
specific gravity of frozen water, and the point of its greatest 
density — these moderate the cold in high latitudes ; the low 
temperature at which it is vaporized, on which depends the 
whole system of springs and rivers — but for it, all the earth 
above sea level would be an arid waste ; yet more, the vapour 
is little transparent to non-luminous heat, and therefore pro- 
tects the earth from the cold of excessive radiation — and in the 
hands of man this vapour has become an instrument of power, 
whose extent imagination can scarcely fathom Lastly, ^^The 
power of water to dissolve a great number of substances with- 
out altering their constitution, makes it an element without 
which neither animal nor vegetable life could exist. And 
he adds, If any one thinks that these qualities were the result 
of accident, I can only say of him, in the words of Scripture, 
that he is under a strong delusion."’ I would just add, that 
Dr. Tyndall, in his lectures on heat, tries to disparage the 
argument for Design derived from the point of greatest 
density in water, by pointing out one other substance which 
behaves similarly. But surely the fact that water is one of two 
exceptions — or even one among a greater number, had such 
been the case — to the ordinary rule, when so much depends 
upon its being an exception, cannot be supposed to weaken 
the argument for Design. 
o o 
APPENDIX A. 
On the doctrine of Conservation of Energy, the Kev. T. Eomney Eobinson 
says (referring to the heat produced by the collision of two equal non-elastic 
bodies), — “ If these bodies be such as soft clay or putty (in Avhich case they 
should rather be called viscid than non-elastic) a very large portion of 
their vis viva is expended in changing their figure, for they flatten and 
cohere ; and I am not aware of any experiments having been made to 
ascertain whether any, or how much, heat is evolved in the process. 
But it is also possible to conceive two ultimate atoms of matter colliding. 
They are unelastic because incompressible, and their figure cannot be altered; 
and we can conceive no other result than that their motion must be destroyed. 
And this is a matter of some importance, because in the kinetic theory of 
gases the molecules must be supposed to be elastic ; or else in their 
collisions they would ultimately come to rest. Now this bears on the con- 
stitution of the ether, to which it is the present fashion to refer all physical 
