War and its Effects, as seen in Marine Organisms

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
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On wednesday 19 october 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle presided and spoke at the lecture "War and its Effects, as seen in Marine Organisms" at the Upper Norwood Literary and Scientific Society (UNLSS) meeting held at the Royal Normal College (Norwood).



Attendees


Conan Doyle contribution

The PRESIDENT (Dr. Conan Doyle) occupied the chair, and, in opening the proceedings, briefly thanked the members for having elected him to preside over them during the present session.

The PRESIDENT, in proposing a vote of thanks to the lecturer, remarked that they had heard of the struggle which was as continuously going on between animals of the lower order — as, for instance, between shark and shark, and mackerel and mackerel — and so it was in our own daily lives. Just as in animal life, the weakest went to the bottom, and nothing more was heard of them. It was only now and again that they had some side glimpse of how strange a power life was. He remembered reading that Sir James Paget calculated that of 1,000 students who matriculated on one occasion, 890 were unaccounted for. Life with us was just as strange a power as in the lowest animals; and though we do not learn to develop spienles, as in the case of the fish which had been illustrated — (laughter) — we do try to improve and better ourselves. Curious as it might seem to some, just as with the lower animals, we are working to some glorious goal. As we develop, it was possible, he humourously remarked, that men would be as far above us as we are above the jellyfish — but that wouldn't be in our time. (Laughter.)


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