PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17393, 2 March 1922, Page 4

PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTE.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. The Canterbury Philosophical In«titut« hel-i dta first meeting of the 1922 «t>«ion.la»t eveniny, when. Mr A. M. Wright delivered his presidential address. Before cflmmencing his address Mr AVrigH referred' to Jhe fact that 1922 was the Diamond Jubilee year of the Institute. He did not intend' to trace the history of the ae tot had been very fully done by Dr. CockayM /oft the Institute's Golden Jnbilee. w Sir Wright stated that his Sun, shine and Showers," was not rnten,led merely as « phrase to attract attention, but as the beSt short description of the subject mttr ter of his discourse—the evolution of life upon the earth. The ovum of " mala could be .artificially fertilised by means of various «alts; indeed', in, tbe ®{ frogs by merely pricking the unfertilised eggs were stimulated, and fiogs developed in this manner had lived up wards of a year; a photograph ,was shown upon screen o! one _ early times vertebrates liad eves, yet if a little magnesium chloride was added to the sea water m whioh tlw cgp-s of the fish Fundulus were would give rise to embryos with oi» median cyclopean eye. It was the biol°giet \ho first discovered evolution, but the chem • was following in his cou d now ahow that the very atoms which thrill and flash in our brains and muscles once formed part of the httge jj r ® ®? 19t „ J which our solid earth condensed, and in Bomc form or other the the forms our bodies would exist kn« « present order of creation had passed awsy Slid , might even blow in the ." inHs of worlds as vet unborn, jukl thrill in forms not evolved. Light and and showers —were essential to life on. tne T a xtr * Wricht referred to certain interesting facts which were available for c °nsideratKm in following inorganic evolution ™ electron to atom,. from atom to m colloid, and te living orgemams, and eta ted that in this evolution there operated Hi s law of complexity, whish J'i 'be higher legions of complexity induced organic, evolution, and all the many forms of living matte.■ » higher' levels it formed tho bafis of 8^' a .' evolution and led to development in, individual and community.