Abstract
"The very foundation of our science (geology) is only an inference; for the whole of it rests on the unprovable assumption that, all through the inferred lapse of time which the inferred performance of inferred geological processes involve, they have been going on in a manner consistent with the laws of nature as we know them now. We seldom realize the magnitude of that assumption...." "The more clearly the immensely speculative nature of geological science is recognized, the easier it becomes to remodel our concepts of any inferred terrestrial conditions and processes in order to make outrages upon them not outrageous." The members of this society realize the speculative nature of geological science as now taught and i take it we are here to make "outrages" upon it. What a tragedy it is that a theory built on such an unstable foundation has been so widely taught and allowed to do such irreparable damage.