159 
an apology for having made so few references,, and cited no 
authorities for my statements. I have designedly abstained 
from so doing, for I am alive to what has been well called the 
fallacy of quotations. A visit to a library, or a reference to 
one’s own bookshelves, would enable ohe to swell a paper out 
with long passages, relevant or irrelevant, from Pacius and 
Zabarella, from Petrus Hispanus and Salabert, from Hamilton 
and Mill. But I repeat what I said then, that our object is 
not to show what men have thought, but to induce others to 
think. The only weapon which mind can use against mind 
is mind itself: <jo(j)ia yap av cro^iav 7 rapapdiJjZLSv avi'ip. 
The Chairman. — I need not ask you to return thanks to Dr. Thornton 
for his interesting and very learned paper. I am sure it is one we shall all 
value very much, and one which will require deep study. It is almost 
impossible to take it in fully from merely hearing it read, but if any 
gentleman has any observations to make we shall be glad to hear them. 
Mr. Ince.— Dr. Thornton does not seem to be aware that between the 
years 400 and 500 a.d. those mountains in Auvergne were in active volcanic 
operation, and that there are records of the fact in existence still, in letters 
from the Bishops of that part of France to other Bishops, begging their 
prayers during the prevalence of that calamity. I have shown that document, 
which I extracted from the Quarterly Review , to Mr. Beddie, and I will 
take an opportunity of showing it to Dr. Thornton. 
Bev. Bobinson Thornton.— I have alluded to this, though, it seems, not 
definitely enough, in my paper ; and the reason I did allude to it, was because 
I had had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Ince make that important statement 
once before. I was then interested in it, and it was in my mind when I put 
in the paragraph, “ allusions have been found to a volcanic eruption in the 
district.” But I did not like to say more, because I did not wish to “ take a 
plum out of his pudding.” 
Mr. Beddie.— I think it would be interesting to our members to have 
this circumstance which Mr. Ince has alluded to, and which I supposed 
Dr. Thornton to have had in view in that passage of his paper, extracted 
from the article in the Beview in which it appears. I am sorry that other 
occupations prevented me from getting hold of the passage and citing it 
this evening, but I shall endeavour to append it as a foot-note in our 
Journal of Transactions, our object being to make all our discussions as 
full and complete as possible.* One question I should like to ask Dr. 
Thornton, with reference to an old friend of mine— the Neanderthal 
skull. There is a passage in his paper that I do not quite understand; 
he says that this was probably a skull of “such a race as the Scriptural 
ethnology might lead us to expect to find settled in early times in that part 
of the world.” Although he very properly calls it “an individual distortion,” 
* Vide Note, p. 166. 
