310 
Transactions it will be found that those theories have been refuted, and that 
the eruption of these mountains took place in the fifth century of the 
Christian era. Then there was the Neanderthal skull, supposed scarcely to be 
that of a man at all, but almost of the “ missing link ” between man and 
monkeys. There is something very analogous to the shape of that head in 
the Nova Scotian giantess who was exhibited in Piccadilly not long ago. 
But it was found by a careful observer, Dr. Barnard Davis, that that skull 
was merely an abnormal skull, and that disease had been at work upon it 
and had caused the peculiar frontal development which it exhibited. Nobody 
now believes that it was either a very ancient skull, or that there was any- 
thing Simian in its character ; and, in fact, there never was any proof that 
the clay in which it was found was old clay. Mr. Garbett has told us that 
facts when ascertained should always be accepted. If they are facts, no doubt 
that is true enough, but the question most often is, whether so-called facts 
are facts or not. Many things which at first have been taken to be facts have 
been found not always to be relied on. Another thing which Mr. Garbett 
has said is, that the facts of history are not more difficult to be ascertained 
than are the facts of physical phenomena. Now I think it is most difficult 
to get at the true history even of one day’s transactions. We know the wide 
divergence there was between the Federal and Confederate accounts of events 
in the American war ; and we know also how completely we were, and are, 
at sea with regard to many of the events which took place in the Crimean war. 
And that being so, how we are to tell what took place in the histories of other 
nations before “ our own correspondent ” became an institution, I really do 
not know. As to natural phenomena, whatever is a fact once is always a fact, 
unless you deal with exceptional matter or miracles ; and here is the great 
advantage of entering upon the study of natural science, for it should make 
us more accurate and careful, and we should never accept its facts without 
having them verified over and over again. Whatever was true to Copernicus, 
to Kepler, to Newton, to Darwin, or to any one, is the same always. You 
have the same elements that they had, the same natural world, and the same 
investigations may go on over and over again to eliminate the errors of 
previous philosophers. What is the history of science but a record of dis- 
coveries and the setting right of errors and mistakes, it being constantly 
found that what were put forward as facts at one time were really no facts at 
all ? There seems a strange disposition on the part of Mr. Garbett, and on 
the part of ethers, to an unscientific mode of viewing these things ; there is 
an inclination to separate the reasoner and the observer too completely from 
one another. Now I must say, that without reasoning a man would be but 
a very poor observer, and an observer would be a sorry man of science if he 
did not reason 
Mr. Bow. — You must not confound two processes of reason together. 
Mr. Eeddie. — I think that all processes of reasoning are analogous 
Mr. Bow. — There is inductive and deductive reasoning. 
Mr. Beddie. — Quite so ; but deduction is only extending the process of 
induction. There is no material difference in the character of the mental work. 
