Morning journal and courier., 1882-05-10
Yale Theological School.

Dr. John w. Dawson on ssEvoIution''-
 Marquand Chapel Full of Hearers-An
 Instructive Lecture.
 The first of series of four lectures by Dr. John w. Dawson, principal of McGill Uni versity, Montreal, was given before the stu dents of the Theological school at Marquand chapel yesterday afternoon. Besides the students there was large attendance of those who desired to hear the views of the eminent scientist on subject of popular interest. The speaker has clear and simple method of stating his proI ositions and held the atten-
 tion of all from first to last. 'T shall under
 take," said he, ''to present brief sketch of
 what VIC know of the history of life on the
 earth Hypotheses of evolution are not new.
 The classic poets wrote about it. though they
 treated it merely as speculative theory. Let
 us look, for a moment, at the geological
 record of the earth and trace the history of
 animal and plant life. The earliest geolog-
 ical period is the ezoic age In the limestone
 of this period are found fossils, called 'ezoa,
 which are the lowest forms of animals life
 known. In the next period, the paleozo1c
 age, we first find vertebrate animal, fishes,
 reptiles and insects In the vegetable
 
 and pines The next period, the mezozo1c
 age, shows very high order of reptiles
 much higher than those now on the earth. Many of these large creatures have left thelr footprints on the sandstones of Connecticut.
 There were also many intermediate forms of
 birds and reptiles Could we have come in-
 to the forests of this period we would have
 seen familiar species of trees now on the earth, only in much greater variety. In fLa Toe ho wa find mammalia, cats, squirrels, hyenas, apes, gor- illas and, lastly, man.
 Tn all these ages the different kinds of creatures and plants burst upon the natural ist in profusion and in their fullest develop ment. Man himself came into the world suddenly, fully developed and with no limbs to connect him with other animals. The whole record of animal and plant life is a story of abrupt introductions of different species at stated intervals of time. It is quite clear to the geologist that no one has yet reached the ultimate beginning of things and that geological research only points to that beginning Geology also teaches the permanency of natural laws. and that in. all things there is plan and purpose. When we consider that all the old forms of animal and vegetable life can be classified with the modern ones, we begin to see that they all form one grand system. In some of the pc riods rapid progress has been made in animal l and plant life, while in others-lke the age | in which we live-little or nothing has been done. It seems now as if nature had ceased ! to be fertile in new forms of life.
 "The great difficulty with the theory of ! evolution is that it consists merely in series \ of successive facts separated by great lapses | of time and with nothing to connect them ! In the lowest tertiary beds, wrote Professor ! Marsh, a rich mammalian lorna suddenly ! makes it's appearance; no such remains ID ! the cretatious period exist, which is much to E be regretted This is the case with all the ages The forms of animal and plant life come upon us suddenly, and the ancestors oi any one species cannot be traced. This is not saying that evolution is not true,-it may \ be, but it remains to be proved"
 Dr. Dawson will give his second lecture ! this afternoon at 3 o'clock. Subject, "The manifestations of mind in nature"