The Express.
London, England, 1855-04-23 00:00:00

ROYAL INSTITUTION.

The evening meetings of the members of the Royal
Institution were resumed on Friday after the Easter recess,
when Mr. Hux:ey delivered a lecture " On the Progressive
Development of Life in Time." The object be bad in view
was to point out the general arguments adduced by there
theorists who contend that there has been a progressive de-
velopment of life since the globe first became habitable,
commencing with the simplest forms of organisation, and
proceeding regularly upwards to the most complex, and
then to show that such a view of creation is not compatible
with the fasts disclosed by geological researches. Mr.
Huxley said that all the varieties of life that have ever ap-
peared on the earth. from those creatures whose organic
remains are found in the lowest Silurian rocks to the
animals now living as the settees, have been moulded
according to fixed typical forms, and that though none of
the species of existing animals are the same as those which
lived in geological time, yet when we ascend to higher
generalisations, it is found that many of the classes of animals
contiane the same, whilst there has bean no change in the
orders of animal life. He then proceeded to point out the
resemblance of typical forme in the first developments of
life, taking as the objects of comparison the two extremes of
birds and fillies. The gradual changes that take place in an
egg during hatching were exhibited by diagrams on an en-
larged scale, and they were compared with the changes in
the spawn of fishes, to show that up to a certain stage the
rudimeatary developments nearly correspond, and that the
principal organs of life are apparently alike in both. So
far, therefore, the notion of progressive development re-
ceives some countenance, for up to that point the
chick and the fish, so far as regards their general
forme, seem to be convertible into each other; but
in the subsequent development all resemblance, beyond
the maintenance of those general typical forms, dis-
appears, and the notion of transmutation of species,
so far from receiving confirmation, is contradicted by a close
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development. The eartilaginoas fishes which existed at en
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early geologies' period bas the spine curved upwards, and
the tail bad no corresponding brarch below, whilst most
bony fishes, like the haddock and mackerel, have an equal
expansion of the tail on both sides of the spine. Mr. Hux-
ley entered minutely into the differences exhibited in those
fishes and in salmon, with a view to show that the develop-
ment of an expanded tail could i.e traced anterior to the
single tail of cartilaginous fishes, and therefore that this
point on which progressioniste have placed muck reliance
, entirely failed them. In several other respects also the
organic remains in the lower series of reeks exhibit a higher
degree of development than appears in animals of the same
class in subsequent periods. Thus, thouh a superficial
view of the successive classes of animal life may appear to
sanction the opinions advocated in such works as the tt Vas-
' tigee of Creation," a more close examination dispels the
notion ofszscrze developing's% and prom Wet it has
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