New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-17
TuE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

,NANO\,
tyNNN NyS OWN oNSSxNoNpSNtI
E,NNsVE,,,S ApE, A-rhcrr arc sevcn sections of
tNe N,,,Sh Association hT the Advancement Of
Soses,t~A Va; A. Mathematical and Physical Science.
lNreSaoa, INT nc TAFT; h Chemical Science, Tres
s4ee6 tNVs, T. Aodwws; 4. Geology, President
I'M A,vA,NaA rr,ke; II. Biolop, President
ryNS Allow Thomson. with thro dopatmcntS-l'
Anatomy and Physiology: y AuthroPology 4 FOOL
NSy Aad R,,Any, \. Geography, President Col. IL.
Nu,es T. NcNnNmic Science and Statistics, President
leri NoAvcs; and t. Mechanical Science, President
lHeesans lcnkin Zach " these sections and depart
tnsntS hOlS separate meetings daily in the different
clASsgNanlS and ccturc-rcoms Of the University by
lar She most crowded on days when have looked IN
has hcca the AnthropoloQcal Department OF the
SNction Biology But all the Departments united Ill
listening o the address of the President of the sec
ti0n-PrOf Allen ThomSon-which went over inc
sCcncral subject of Biology. with an inquiry INTO
the condition of biological research. neeu
not say that il is quite out Of the scheme OF compass
If my letter to give anything like an analysis OF thlS
or any other of the addresses which have heard OF
read All shall undertake to do Will be 10 touch
here and there point which interested me, OF which
suppose may interest Others
EFFECT OF SIR WM. THoMsoNs ADDRESS.
In nv last letter dismissed Sir William Thorn
SONS address more briefly than should have done
had known then what sensation, OF rather shock
il had given to the well-ordered minds of the good
people of Edinburgh. Sir William Thomson GER
tainly is not Biologist, yet he strayed into the re-
cons of biological research. With an air of careless
ness as if it the most natural thing in the world
he preached his theory of the origin of life
globe. Accepting Prof. Huxley's law-which. how
ever Prof. Huxley did not originate-that life pro-
ceeds from life and from nothing but fe Sir William
proposes to get rid of the difficulty about creation by
supposing that life in this world sprung from moss
moss grown fragments of another world, with
which either this or third planet had
come into collision and which being itself endowed
with organic life had projected its fragments upon
our surface, with all their germs of vegetable and
animal growth man included Sir William remarks
upon his own theory that 1t may seem wild and
visionary; all he maintains is that it is not un-
scientific. Perhaps not, but if not, neither is the
Indian fable Of the earth resting upon an elephant
and the elephant upon tortoise The obvious pur-
pose of that fable to get nd of the difficulty OF
supporting the globe, and it got rid of 1T by post
poning the question. Sir William does just the same
thing with the difficulty about creating power
He transfers it from this planet to another. When
we have got our organic germs from that ruined orb
we are just as much compelled to ask how they
arrived ON that orb as now to seek for their prime
cause on our own; or as the Indian skeptic was
compelled to ask what the tortoise rested
on But the difficulty of piOus Edinburgh
is not scientific 1t is religious rather theological
and we are profoundly shocked that science should
venture on such hypothesis in the ancient home OF
John Knox. Even the theory, however, am told.
has not created such horror the way III which 1T
was put forth for Professor Thomson eager to point
out the probability of such collision as he wants
for the peopling Of this EARTH hkens the planets
moving through space to ships steered Without intet
EgeRoe directed 10 preuent ootlision between which,
therefore, collisions must from time to time occur.
That puts the Deity aside pretty completely.
Wen, all this may be very shocking, but there can
be no doubt that Sir William Thomson has performed
precisely the service which President ought to per
FORM He has set everybody's mind at work. Few
addresses have had influence upon the imme-
diate deliberations of the Association. Sir AleXan-
der Grant Principal Of Edinburgh University
followed it Immediately with a brief speech, the
whole object of which was to throw ridicule upon
the theory Just stated. But in the Biological
section on the following day, Prof. Huxley de-
soribed Sir William Thomsons address as the most
absolute bold and heretical declaration In favor OF
the doctrine of evolution" which he had ever heard
And he turned it ceverly to his own purpose by re-
marking that the forms of life thus transmitted
~,
oric stones-could not by any possibility have been
ANYTHING but the very lowest elements of life; and
therefore, if Sir VIM Thomson saw no difficulty in
peopng the world in that way, it must be because
he YVES sound Darwinian at heart, and believed
that all the higher forms of life had been evolved
from the lowest"
1t is not, perhaps, very violent step from the
spores Of fungi that preceded life in this world to
the spirits that supposed to survive US In an
other-I mean of the rapping kind. Prof. Allen
Tbomson-who must not DO COMPOUNDED with Sir
yilliam-devotes a part of his opening address
in the Biological section to what is called
Spiritualism. He discusses it only to disown 1t,
and to repel the effort which its disciples are con-
santly making to associate it somehow with science
and scientific investigations. Not that men OF
science reject Spiritualism or anything else from
pre;udice. Science has no prejudices Scientific
men, Prof. Thomson is careful to assure us, nave
never neglected OF declined to investigate the phe-
nomena presented to them, with candor and atten-
ton. They are fully aware that extremely curious
and rare nervous phenomena in peculiar states
of the nervous system so curious to seem marvel
ous TO those who are unacquainted with nervous
nbenomena But the result of scientific inquiries
into the peculiar manifestations called spiritual mas
been uniformly the same when either the reality OF
the pheuomena OF the Justice of their interpretations
could be fairly tested, WIZ either that the expert
ments sgnay failed to educe the results professed
or that the experimenters were detected in shame
less impostures. OF this Prof. Thomson has himself
been convinced by repeated examinations, and he
adds that no man of note can be named from the
long list of thoroughly well-informed anatomists
and Psychologists who has not treated the belief IN
the separate existence of powers of Animal Magnet
ism and Spritualism as wild speculations, devoid OF
all foundation in the carefully tested observation OF
facts.
FINANCIAL
In its financial affairs, the Association may boast
of grest success-Oreater, 81 believe than in many