1 878.] 
Notices of Books. 
*33 
the early existence of mankind — or at least of some tool-using 
animal — on our earth. During excavations in the city of 
Auckland a tree-stump was discovered in its natural position, 
upright, with roots penetrating the surrounding clay, and covered 
by about 25 feet of volcanic debris , consisting of stratified beds 
of ooze and volcanic ash adjacent to a volcanic centre. The 
clay in which the roots occur rests upon Tertiary rocks, and is 
10 to 15 feet thick. The stump is said to be a “ tea-tree ” 
(Manuka), and to have been cut with a tool. The author holds 
that it proves the existence of man long before the period indi- 
cated by the traditions of the Maories of their advent in this 
island, and at a period before what is probably the oldest volcano 
in Auckland became extindl. 
At Mercedes, near Buenos Ayres, human bones have been 
discovered at a depth of 4 metres in undisturbed Quaternary 
beds, mixed with burnt wood, earth, and flint-implements ; also 
bones of about fifteen species of mammals, mostly extindl. 
This interesting volume finishes with “ Addenda,” a “ Sup- 
plement,” and a “ Postscript,” which reminds us of the headings 
“ Finally,” “ Lastly,” and “To conclude, ” in a Puritan sermon. 
Is Scientific Materialism Compatible with Dogmatic Theology ? 
The Inaugural Address delivered before the Literary and 
Philosophical Society of Liverpool on the Opening of the 
Sixty-Seventh Session, Odlober 1, 1877. ByJoHN Drysdale, 
M.D., President of the Society, and author of “ The Proto- 
plastic Theory of Life.” Liverpool : Adam Holden. 
The Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, as we were 
on a former occasion compelled to remark, seems to have a strong 
propensity for the discussion of subjects which can scarcely be 
held to fall under its legitimate cognisance. Dr. Drysdale’s able 
and interesting address may doubtless rank as “ philosophical ” 
in the more recent and etymologically more corredl acceptation ; 
but when the literary and philosophical societies of England were 
founded, and when their aims and fundlions were defined, the 
word “ philosophical ” was, we submit, used in a sense which 
now survives mainly in the phrase “ philosophical instruments.” 
In the first quarter of the present century, and even down to, say, 
the year 1840, the word “ philosopher ” was the exadt equivalent 
of the German “ Naturforscher,” and of the recent American 
word “ scientist.” Hence were it not that the Society bears also 
the very vague name of “ Literary,” Dr. Drysdale’s address 
could only be regarded as a breach of order. As it is the dis- 
cussion of his views, in a stridlly scientific organ, is scarcely 
within the limits of possibility. 
