THE TENDENCY OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1113, 31 August 1883, Page 4

THE TENDENCY OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY.

-ir TT Park Iv, G C.M G . F. 8.5., took fiiptjlmir at the'animal meeting of the "Vicuna (’Phibwophical) Institute, at Ade’phi Te-tair, London, in the last week in .Tnnp The Honorary Secretary. Captain F. Petrie. F H.S hj tr<nd 'he report, hv w ich it appeared that the Testitnte, founded to inves tigate a'l questions of Philosophy and ■'Sciei'ce, and mure especially any alleged to militate against the truth of Pevelatinn, —had now risen to 1.020 ’members, of whom about one-third ■were Foreign, Colonial, and American 'and new applications to joinwere constantly coming in. An increasing Humber of leading me nt science, had joined its ranks, and men of science, whether in Its ranks or not, •co-operated in its work. During the •session a careful analysis had been tin. Oertaken by Professor Btokes, F R S., •Fir J H. Bennett, Vice-Pres. 8.5., Professor Beale, F. R 8., and others, ■of the various theories of Evolution, and it was reported that, as yet, no scientific evidence had been met with giving countenance to the theory that ■man had be n evolved from a lower ■order in animals ; and Prof. Virchow •declar.d that the ! e was a complete ah ■sence of any fossil type of a lower stage in the development of man ; and that any positive advance in the province of prehistoric anthropology has actually’removed us further from proofs -of such connection- namely, with the rest of the Animal kingdom. In this, Professor Barrande, the great palaeontologist, had concurred, de •daring that in none of his investigation s had he found any one fossil species develop in o another. In fact, it would seem that no sc entific man had ret discovered a link between man and the ape, between fish and frog, or between the vertebrate and the invertebrate animals; further, ■there was no evidence of any one fossil or other, losing its peculiar -characteristics to acquire new ones •belonging to other species ; for instance, how similar the dog to the "wolf, there was no connecting link, ■and among extinct species (he same was the case; there was no gradual passage from one to another. Moreover, the first animals that existed on the earth were by no means to be considered as inferior or degraded. Among other investigations, one into ■the truth of the argument from Design in feature had been carried on, and had hitherto tended to fully confirm ’that doctrine. The question of the Assyrian inscriptions and Babylonian researches had been under the leadership ot Mr Hormnzd R ssam, who, on ■ids avrivaljjtfrom Nineveh, had given a Tull report’iof the extent of his new excavations, which were of the highest interest His discovery of Sepharvairn, one of the first cities mentioned in Holy Writ, was important,. Professor Dilitscb and other aided in the '■consideration of the discoveries and "the inscriptions found. Two meetings had been held to consider the questions raised in JVD Herbert Spencer’s Philosophy, and lord O'Neil and others •had shown, by a careful analysis of his arguments, that a greater attention to accuracy in statement would have kept Mr ISpeocer from arriving at those hasty conclusions which had made his philosophy remarkable, it was announced that the results 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 sn e of Snccoih, which, like the results of the survey of Palestine, was couth matory of the ."acred Record The q' arterly Journal, which had been pu lished for sixteen years was now issued free to *ll Members and Associates. whether at home or abroad. Several interesting speeches having been made, the Members and their ■fiends adjourned to the Museum, where refreshments were served.