CONCLUDING GENERAL MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIA- TION.-1. A vote of thanks to the Lord Provost and Ma- gistrates of Edinburgh, 374.-2. A vote of thanks to the University of Edinburgh, 375.-3. Vote of thanks to the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons.-4. Vote of thanks to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Board for the En- couragement of Arts and Manufactures, and other Literary and Scientific Societies in Edinburgh, 379.-5. Vote of thanks to the Commissioners of Northern Lights, 380.- 6. The President's concluding Address, 382.-7. Conclu- sion of the Proceedings of the British Association for 1850. -8. Excursions, 385.-9. Lectures.-10. Promenades and ART. XIV. Notes on the Geology of the Southern Extre- mity of Cantyre, Argyleshire. By JAMES NICOL, XV. Notes of Professor EDWARD FORBES' Excursion to the Hebrides. Communicated by the Author, . 388 XVI. Observations on Three Skulls of Naloo Africans. By RICHARD OWEN, F.R.S., Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy in the Royal College of Surgeons. Communicated by the Ethnological XVII. On the Succession of Strata and Distribution of Or- ganic Remains in the Dorsetshire Purbecks. By Professor EDWARD FORBES, F.R.S. Communi- XVIII. Classification of Mammalia, Birds, Reptiles, and MEMORANDUM. Owing to the large space occupied by the Proceedings of the British Associa- THE EDINBURGH NEW PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. Geographical Distribution of Animals. By Professor THE greatest obstacles in the way of investigating the laws of the distribution of organized beings over the surface of our globe, are to be traced to the views generally entertained about their origin. There is a prevailing opinion, which ascribes to all living beings upon earth one common centre of origin, from which it is supposed they, in the course of time, spread over wider and wider areas, till they finally came into their present state of distribution; and what gives this view a higher recommendation, in the opinion of most men, is the circumstance, that such a method of distribution is considered as revealed in our sacred writings. We hope, however, to be able to shew that there is no such statement in the Book of Genesis; that this doctrine of a unique centre of origin, and successive distribution of all animals is of very modern invention; and that it can be traced back for scarcely more than a century in the records of our science. There is another view to which, more recently, naturalists have seemed to incline; viz., the assuming several centres of origin, from which organized beings were afterwards diffused over wider areas, in the same manner as according to the first theory, the difference being only in the assumption of several centres of dispersion instead of a single one. We have recently been led to take a very different view of the subject, and shall presently illustrate the facts upon which the view rests. But before we undertake to introduce more directly this subject, there is another point which reVOL. XLIX. NO. XCVII.-JULY 1850. A quires preliminary investigation, which seems to have been entirely lost sight of by all those, without exception, who have studied the geographical distribution of animals, and which seems to us to be the keystone of the whole edifice, whenever we undertake to reconstruct the primitive plan of the geographical distribution of animals and plants. The distribution of organized beings over the surface of our globe in its present condition cannot be considered in itself; and without an investigation, at the same time, of the geographical distribution of those organized beings which have existed in former geological periods, and had become extinct before those of the present creation were called into being. For it is well ascertained now that there is a natural succession in the plan of creation-an intimate connection between all the types of the different periods of the creation from its beginning up to this day; so much so, that the present distribution of animals and plants is the continuation of an order of things which prevailed for a time at an earlier period, but which came to an end before the existing arrangement of things was introduced. The animal kingdom, as we know it in our days, is therefore engrafted upon its condition in earlier periods; and it is to the distribution of animals in these earlier periods that we must look, if we would trace the plan of the Creator from its commencement to its more advanced development in our own time. If there is any truth in the view that animals and plants originated from a common centre, it must be at the same time shewn that such an intimate connection between the animals existed at all periods; or, at least, we should, before assuming such a view for the animals living in our days, discover a sufficient reason for ascribing to them another mode of dispersion than to the animals and plants of former periods. But there is such a wonderful harmony in all the great processes of nature, that, at the outset, we should be carefully on our guard against assuming different modes of distribution for the organized beings of former periods, and for those which at present cover the globe. Should it be plain that the animals and plants did not originate from a common centre at the beginning of the creation, and during the different successive geological periods, we have at once a strong indication that neither has such been the case with the animals of the present day; and, on the other hand, if there were satisfactory evidence that the animals and plants now living originated from a common centre, we should consider the matter carefully before trusting to the views derived from geological facts. Let us, therefore, examine first the value of the evidence on both sides. We have already expressed, and we repeat here, our earnest belief that the view of a unique centre of origin and distribution rests chiefly upon the supposed authority of the Mosaic record; and is in no way sustained by evidence derived from investigations in natural history. On the contrary, wherever we trace the animals in their present distributions, we find them scattered over the surface of our globe in such a manner, according to such laws, and under such special adaptations, that it would baffle the most fanciful imagination to conceive such an arrangement as the mere results of migrations, or of the influence of physical causes over the dispersion of both animals and plants. For we find that all animals and plants of the arctic zones agree in certain respects and are uniform over the three continents which verge towards the northern pole, whilst those of the temperate zone agree also in certain respects, but differ somewhat from each other within definite limits, in the respective continents. And the differences grow more and more prominent as we approach the tropical zone, which has its peculiar Fauna and Flora in each continent; so much so, that it is impossible for us to conceive such a normal arrangement, unless it be the result of a premeditated plan, carried out voluntarily according to predetermined laws. The opinion which is considered as the Biblical view of the case, and according to which all animals have originated in a common centre, would leave us at a loss for any cause by which to account for the special dispersion of animals and plants beyond the mere necessity of removing from the crowded ground to assume wider limits, as their increased number made it constantly more and more necessary and im perative. According to this view, the animals of the arctic |