THE TENDENCY OF SCIENTIFIC ENQUIRY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1030, 24 August 1883, Page 4

THE TENDENCY OF SCIENTIFIC ENQUIRY.

Sir.'Henry Bafkly, G.C.M.G., |f.R.S., took the chair at the annual meeting of the Victoria Philosophical Institute, St 7, Adelphi TerraceJ London, in the last week in June. The honorary secretary, Captain F. Petrie, F.R.S.L., read the report, by which it appeared

that the institute—founded to investi-

gate’all questions of philosophy and science, and more especially any realleged to militate against the truth of . revelation—had now risen to 11,020

members, of whom about one-third

‘ wrere foreign, colonial, and American, ;^andi new applications to join were constantly wming in. An increasing number of leading of science had, *■* joined its ffink&, and men of science, whether in its ranks or not, co-operated in its work. During.the session a care- - i ful analysis had been undertaken by Professor Stokes, F.R.S, Sir J. R. Bennett, Vice-Pres. R.S., Professor Beale, and Others, fof the various theories of .evolution, and it was re- : : .ported: that, as yet, no scientific evii dence had;-been met with giving countenance to the theory that man had been evolved from a lower order

in animals and’Professor Virchow had declared that there was a ppmplete absence of any fossil type of a ; lower stage in the development of man ; and that any ppsitiyq. advance in the province of prehistoric anthropology has actually removed •Us further fromy proofs ; of .< such connection —nameiy rr ji(ith,the rest of the ahimal kingdom.. ■ln this,. Professor Barrande, the great paleontologist, had condeclaring 'that in : none of his . 1 investigations had , h£f any: one $ 3 losslFspecies' deVeldpe into f mfotherln I- fact, it would seem that no scientific man had yet discovered a Jink between ’• >'’* 'man and the ape,’ betweeri ffsh and the frog,.,or between , the vertebrate, and invertebrate animals; further there was

no evidenqeof any one species, fossil or other/ losing its peculiar characteristics : ; i tb acquire new ones belonging to other >• species; for instance, similar :i?i u the dOg'to the’ wolf, there was- no-con-necting link, and ‘among extinct species

the same was the case; there was no Oi.it: gradual'passage from "one to another. Moreover, the first animals that existed on the earth were by nq means ; ! v t6' be considered as inferior or de’l gradecL. -Among other investigations, one into the truth of the argument from Design in Nature had been carried on, and had hitherto tended to fully confirm that doctrine. The question of the Assyrian inscriptions and the fe- | ivfehe Babylonian researches; thad/ been ’ ' under thedeadership of 'Mr Hormuzd Rassam, who, on his arrival from N ine-

veh, had given a full report of the ex;tentT new,. excavations,,. which -‘were of tfie highest interest! His discovery; of; Sephatvaim, one of the first cities mentioned in Holy Writ, was most important. Professor Delitsch and others aided in the consider[ation ,of the T discoveries . ,and the - inscriptions found. Two meetings had been held to consider the questions

raised in Mr Herbert Spencer’s Philosophy, and Xqrd O’Neill-and. others *' had shovvn, by‘a careful analysis of his arguments, that a greater attention to • accuracy in statement would have kept Mr Spencer from arriving at those t Wnibh ’ Rad* made his philosophy remarkable. It was an■Ttf .nattocelKthhtThe result's of explorations now being carried on in Egypt would be laid before the institute early in the winter. The discoveries were very important, especially that of the site of Succoth, which, like the. results of the sufveji of Palestine, was’ confirmatory of the Sacred Record. The quarterly Journal, which hlid been published for sixteen years, yrqs now issued free to ' ‘all members and associates, whether at hoqpe or abroad. Several interesting speeches having been made, the members and their friends adjourned to the Museum, where refreshments were served.