Professor Schafer's address, perhaps the most challeng- ing pronouncement delivered
by a President of the British Association since Tyndall's famous Belfast utterance, though in the main a thorough-going vindication of the "mechanistic" position, is marked by some important reserves. He was careful to make it clear that the remarks he had to offer about " life " must not be taken to apply to the conception to which the word " soul" is attached:—
" The fact that the formation of such a conception is only possible in connexion with life, and that the growth and elabora- tion of the conception has only been possible as the result of the most complex processes of life in tho most complex of living organisms, has doubtless led to a belief in the identity of life with soul. But, unless the use of the expression 'soul' is extended to a degree which would deprive it of all special significance, the distinction between these terms must be strictly maintained."
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