264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



aberrations of those who take refuge under his name." M. Robin 

 made an argument which presents a singular appearance now, in view 

 of the hosts of minute but important facts which Mr. Darwin has 

 showered upon science since it was made, that, in respect of demon- 

 strable facts which he had introduced, there would be a hundred zool- 

 ogists who should have precedence over him. If from his publications 

 " we eliminate the views, neither the reality nor falseness of which is 

 demonstrable, and which are therefore not objects of science, there 

 remains to him a share of titles which is inferior to that represented 

 by the well-demonstrated scientific data introduced by M. Bischoff ; 

 there remain to him even fewer titles to our suffrages than to any of 

 the savants who are placed on an equality with him in our list of pres- 

 entations." Mr. Darwin was not elected. His name came before the 

 Academy again, on a nomination to be a foreign correspondent, in 

 1872, and received the same support and the same opposition as two 

 years before. He was rejected receiving only fifteen votes, to thirty- 

 two cast for Mr. Loewen, of Stockholm. His time came at last to 

 receive the recognition of French men of science. He was elected a 

 corresponding foreign member in the zoological section in 1878, by a 

 vote of twenty-six to fourteen, after a rapid change in his favor, and 

 three years after having received a similar recognition from the Im- 

 perial Academy of Science of Vienna. On the occasion of his sixty- 

 ninth birthday, in 1877, he received, as a testimonial from Germany, an 

 elegant album, containing the photographs of one hundred and fifty-four 

 men of science in that country, addressed " To the Reformer of Nat- 

 ural History, Charles Darwin," and a similar album containing the 

 photographs of two hundred and seventeen distinguished professors 

 and lovers of science in the Netherlands, accompanied with an account 

 of the progress of opinion in that country with respect to evolution, as 

 a proof which, it expressed, " we are persuaded, can not but afford 

 you some satisfaction that the seeds by you so liberally strewed have 

 also fallen on fertile soil in the Netherlands." Mr. Darwin replied to 

 the latter testimonial modestly, acknowledging his obligations to pre- 

 vious observers of facts, and adding : " I suppose that every worker 

 at science occasionally feels depressed, and doubts whether what he has 

 published has been worth the labor which it has cost him ; but for the 

 remaining years of my life, whenever I want cheering, I will look at 

 the portraits of my distinguished co-workers in the field of science, and 

 remember their generous sympathy." In 1877 the University of Cam- 

 bridge, amid circumstances of great enthusiasm, conferred the degree 

 of LL. D. on him in a Latin oration, in which his work was neatly 

 summarized, and which closed, "Thou, also, who hast so learnedly 

 illustrated the laws of nature, be our doctor of laws." A subscription 

 was afterward inaugurated at Cambridge for the erection of a perma- 

 nent memorial of him, which it was agreed should be a picture, to 

 be painted by Mr. W. M. Richmond. 



