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have of life itself. (Hear, hear.) You have exactly the same sort of thing 
in the inorganic world. If you take any solid, it begins in something imma- 
terial, and which you cannot analyze. Take the form of crystallization in 
water — a yielding fluid, to which that hardness is imparted which gives us 
an idea of the solidity of material things. That hardness is caused by cold 
— a so-called “ negation.” You have something (caloric) abstracted from the 
soft water, and you get a hard substance produced. You have in the solid 
material of this table, and in all the oaks of the forest, a solid matter built 
up merely of air acting upon a little seed. For what does it feed upon ? 
Literally upon gases ! This solid material is built up of carbonic acid gas 
and of various other gases : and the same may be said of all things, if you trace 
them up to their beginnings. Now it is a very important argument to show 
that life must needs commence in something invisible. I quite understand 
what Professor Kirk means by “ mind,” though we had some difficulty in a 
previous paper of his in understanding the application of the term. Profes- 
sor Kirk does not intend by “ mind ” to imply thought, but something that 
can will. There must be a kind of conscious action. No doubt we are much 
more used to applying the word “ mind ” in the way in which Mr. Brooke 
has used it ; but I can quite understand the other application of it. It is an 
invisible, and not a material thing, that he speaks of ; but I think it a real, 
and, if we could elaborate the argument, I would go further, and say a more 
real thing than matter. I think the mental and invisible are at the bottom 
of all that is visible. You may trace everything back to something invi- 
sible, and, without putting forward any Berkleyan views, which may be ques- 
tioned, I think you will find that the substratum of everything visible is 
merely a law, and that every such thing could be resolved into immaterial 
substances. 
Mr. Brooke. — I should like to say a word with regard to the fact which I 
mentioned before, as to the thermometer used in the deep-sea soundings 
registering an artificial temperature. The ordinary thermometers gave no 
reliable results in the deep-sea soundings at all, because the bulbs were so 
compressed that they drove the mercury up into the tube without any refer- 
ence to the temperature. The only means of getting at the temperature was 
by using jacketed thermometers, in which the space between the outer bulb 
and the true bulb contained a quantity of spirit not quite filling it, to allow 
for the pressure it would be subjected to. When this thermometer was sub- 
merged, the only effect was to reduce the size of the outer bulb a little and dis- 
place the spirit, but without communicating any pressure to the interior bulb, 
which, therefore, then indicated the proper temperature. (Cheers.) With 
regard to motion not being necessarily an indication of individual life or exist- 
ence, I may say that throughout the whole range of the animal kingdom the 
formation of an individual is due to the conjoined action or influence of two 
elements — what may be called the germ cell, and what may be called the sperm 
cell. These are developed in many cases in two different sexes, but in many 
cases they are found in the same individual. The concurrence of the two, 
however, is necessary for the reproduction of the kind, whatever it may be. 
