276 MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. Dec., 1890. 
both sides, and lie quite admitted them on his side. At the 
same time he thought perhaps in many of those cases a 
sufficiently wide definition of “ species ” was not taken. The 
definition of species was a little indefinite, and when they 
said that the two saxifrages that had been mentioned were of 
two different species, possibly if they knew down to the 
bottom of their constitution they would find they were not two 
species, only varieties of one species. There was always that 
possibility, though that did not explain all the interlacing of 
different forms which did occur, and which formed the 
difficulty of his theory. Mr. Stone did not think that the 
moment of fission in a unicellular organism could be the 
moment of death. That, perhaps, depended on the view they 
took of life, but when the one individual became two 
individuals what became of the first individual ? There was 
no longer the one individual, and, whatever definition they 
put upon it, it had gone, and was certainly defunct. As to 
Mr. Turner’s remark that mankind according to his view 
would become Liliputians, he did not think that was far out. 
It was clear that organisms did become smaller as they became 
more highly developed, and how far that might act on the 
human race he did not know. It was said that there were 
giants in the old days, but there were not many of them now. 
He did not think, however, that the doctrine of ancient giants 
was very well proved; and they had, too, the South African 
dwarfs, which seemed to be an early race, which militated 
against the theory. The evidence on these points, however, 
was so scattered that they could not judge. He thought, 
probably, that it would be found in twenty, fifty, or a hundred 
thousand years that the human race would be comparatively 
small compared with what they were now. That the nervous 
development of the human race had not reached its highest, 
he was sure ; and if it went on, the concentration of energy in 
the nervous tissue would, according to the evidence of past 
organic experience, have the result that the outer form would 
be smaller. Men would then have more mind and less body. 
EXCURSIONS. 
The second day (Friday, September 19th) was as usual 
devoted to excursions, admirable arrangements for which had 
been made by the local committee. The locality selected was 
Charnwood Forest. 
Shortly after nine in the morning the intending excur¬ 
sionists, who comprised not only the visiting savants but also 
a good many local ladies and gentlemen—principally members 
of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society—met at 
