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We have not specially cultivated Canadian Geology, because we cannot hope to rival in this department the admirable collection of the Geological Survey; but we have aimed at and secured a general collection, useful in educating the public taste and for giving aid to learners. Our collections in American Ethnology are not contemptible; and at our last annual conversazione, by laying our friends under contribution, we were able to exhibit an admirable series of illustrations of the rude and simple arts of the tribes which preceded us in the occupation of this country.

Of our library I cannot speak in as high praise as of our Museum. It should undoubtedly be one function of a Society like this to collect for the use of naturalists at least those books of reference which they would require to consult, and especily all books of value bearing on American Natural History. It is true that the University Library and that of the Geological Sur vey to some extent supply this want; but there is still a large field in this department which we might occupy, and we should at least place the scientific periodicals of the day conveniently within the reach of our members. Nor is there anything more likely to prove attractive to the public than a well-stocked library and reading room, devoted especially to the scientific subjects which we cultivate. This subject is one with reference to which the Society should move vigorously in the coming year, either by soliciting special contributions for this purpose, by increasing the amount of its annual contributions from members, or by allying itself with other societies. It seems to have been an error in the construction of our building not to have provided larger space for accommodating a library and reading room, and if possible some amendment should be effected in this.

In our proper scientific work a boundless field lies before us. Scarcely any department of the natural history of this country. has been satisfactorily worked out, and any active naturalist can find almost anywhere the material for original investigations, the results of which we are at all times ready to give to the public. I have already referred to the subject of Entomology as applied to practical purposes; and the natural history of our spiders, millepedes, and worms, is almost an untrodden field, while our microscopists have a vast and little explored domain in Canadian. waters, with their multitudes of inhabitants of the humbler grades. There is much also yet to be done in Canadian fishes and reptiles. Mr. Whiteaves has made much progress in cata

loguing Canadian mollusca, but his work is by no means complete; and such groups as the Nudibranchiates, the Tunicates and the Polyzoa, still lie in a very imperfect condition, though some materials have been accumulated. In connection with this subject, I would refer to the desirableness of exploring the deeper parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in which, no doubt, many important additions to our fauna might be discovered, and which might throw much light on the post-pliocene geology of Canada. It is further much to be desired that an attempt should be made to ascertain the precise limits of the various marine animals in the brackish portions of the River St. Lawrence. In dredging in Murray Bay, in the past years, I have been surprised to find so rich a boreal fauna in that part of the river, and I have no doubt that it must extend much further upward, sustained by the cold. salt water which forces its way under the warmer and fresher water of the surface. It would be interesting to know how far the marine animals extend, and also what varietal changes occur in the species as they approach the fresher portions of the river. To prosecute such researches we would require public aid, and the want of this has hitherto limited our work in this direction. Last year a committee was appointed to consider the matter, but nothing was done. With a view to some action in the coming summer, I have, as President of the Society, invited the attention of the Hon. the Minister of Marine to the subject, and have requested a passage for an observer appointed by the Society in one of the Government steamers or schooners. I have much pleasure in stating that he has entered heartily into my views, and that there is a prospect that, with the aid thus afforded, we may be able to reach with the dredge the deepest portions of the Gulf. Though these depths are small in comparison with those which have been reached in the Atlantic, I feel confident that they will afford a rich harvest of marine forms, not hitherto known to us, and that the results will be equally creditable to this Society and to the Government of Canada, which may thus, with little trouble and expense, emulate the Mother Country and the United States in the efforts which they are making to extend the knowledge of Marine Zoology. It is probable also that facts may be obtained of practical value with reference to the fisheries.

In Botany the two points which have chiefly engaged our attention are Geographical Distribution and the Cryptogamic orders. In the former, Mr. Drummond, Dr. Bell, and Mr. Matthew have

done good service, but their labours merely show how much remains to be done. In the latter, Mr. Watt has been our principal worker; but here also, especially in the Algae and Fungi, there is scope for other observers. Some one might do a most important service by directing his attention to the Parasitic Fungi of this country.

Geology, which presents the largest and most attractive field open to students of nature in Canada, has a most important public provision made for its culture in the Geological Survey. Still the function of this Society and of private workers is not unimportant. Several of the officers of the Survey have made the journal and the meetings of this Society the vehicles of their more purely scientific researches. I need only mention the valuable papers of Dr. T. Sterry Hunt on Chemical Geology, and those of Mr. Billings on Palæontology, as illustrative of this. To Mr. Hartley, Mr. Robb, Mr. Vennor, Professor Bell, and Mr. Broome, we have also been indebted in this way. Mr. McFarlane has enriched our journal with many valuable contributions, especially on the nature of rocks, and many of my own researches, especially in Post-pliocene Geology and Fossil Botany, have been published through the medium of the Society. The field for work is still, however, very wide; more especially is there large scope for industrious collectors of fossils, if they would devote themselves to the thorough exploration of such formations as may be within their reach.

PUBLIC PATRONAGE NEEDED.

In conclusion, I must refer to what I regard as at present the most discouraging feature of our position. In the able address delivered last year by Dr. DeSola, reference was made to the slender aid and countenance which this Society receives from the public, and the same subject is illustrated by the statistics of the Society in the reports of the Council for last year, and also for the present year. A Society like this, offering to the public a well filled and well arranged museum, the advantage of attending its scientific meetings and public lectures, and of receiving its journal at a price little more than nominal, should need no advertisement; and this more especially when its working members are labouring so successfully in enlarging the boundaries of knowledge and promoting its practical applications. Those of our citizens who are not themselves naturalists, should on these

grounds be members and contributors to its funds, merely as a public institute, creditable and useful to the city. But this is not all they should also take an interest in its work. Nearly all the subjects which engage its attention possess some interest to any intelligent mind; and I believe that it is much more from want of knowledge of that which we are doing, or from want of thought, than from any other causes, that so many fail to take advantage of the privileges which we offer. I am sure that there is no intelligent man who will not find in the advantages to which I have referred much more than an equivalent for his annual subscription. Experience has, however, shown us that we cannot reckon on a work so unobtrusive as ours securing the attention it deserves. It will, therefore, be incumbent on the new Council to take steps as soon as possible for enlarging our membership by a direct appeal to the public. I trust that this will be successful, and that next year we shall be able to report that we have not only done useful work, but that our list of members has been greatly enlarged.

THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.*

(From the New York « Nation.”)

The author of the "Origin of Species" is more widely known, more eagerly read, more cordially admired, and more emphatically denounced than any other scientific man of the day. The interest in him is in great measure due to the natural desire of humanity to penetrate that "mystery of mysteries "-its origin; encomiums which even his warmest opponents (excepting those who are filled with the odium theologicum) have bestowed upon him, are just tributes to his long and faithful labours, and to the modesty which has compelled others to award to him some of the credit he seemed loth to claim; but much, if not all, of the indignation which many good persons feel towards him arises from misconceptions of his ideas respecting the Creator, which have

"The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection. By Charles Darwin, F. R. S." Fifth edition. (Am. reprint.) New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1871. Pp. 447, 8vo.

"The Genesis of Species. By St. George Mivart, F.R.S." London and New York. Macmillan & Co. 1871. Pp. 296 (with illustrations).

their origin not in his own works, but in those of certain advocates of his general views.

In truth, the candid reader of Darwin's own works can find little fault with his conceptions of the Creator so far as regards their sincerity, although it is evident that he regards the origin of species as a legitimate subject of scientific enquiry, and ignores, as well he may, the vain attempts to reconcile the conclusions to which he is led with the commonly received interpretation of Scripture. So does the author of the "Genesis of Species," who is, however, a professedly devout man, and gives many arguments and quotations, especially in the chapter on "Theology and Evolution," to show that neither "Darwinism " nor any other derivative theory necessarily conflicts in the least degree with the most orthodox religious convictions.

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This leads to the needed correction of another grave misconception that "Darwinism" is synonymous with "derivation ' or "evolution," and that either of these terms is equivalent to "transmutation." This idea has not only crept into the book catalogues, where all works upon the origin of species are grouped together under the title "Darwinismus," as if they treated of merely local varieties of the same intellectual epidemic, but it has also caused many who feel that Darwin's particular theory is wrong, to oppose all theories whatsoever involving the derivation of higher forms from lower.

A sketch of the views which preceded his own is prefixed, by Darwin, to the later editions of his work; but we have nowhere met with any grouping of these and subsequent theories which exhibits their relative nature. Such a classification we venture to offer here, admitting the impossibility of more than indicating the salient points of each theory and the names of a few of its more zealous advocates. We have also thought it best to omit the hypothesis of "acceleration and retardation," recently proposed by Professor Cope, and spoken of by Principal Dawson as, in his view," the most promising of all."†

*

"The Hypothesis of Evolation." University series. New Haven: C. C. Chatfield & Co.

For farther notice of the hypothesis here referred to, see Dr. Dawson's paper on "Modern Ideas of Derivation," in the Canadian Naturalist for June, 1869, page 134, and also the American Naturalist for June, 1870, pp. 230-237, where, in a review of Dr. Dawson's paper, Prof. Alpheus Hyatt, of Boston, refers to an essay by himself "On the

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