CORRESP ONDENCE. 



405 



CORRESPONDENCE 



EVOLUTION IN AMHERST COLLEGE. 

 Messrs. Editors. 



I HAVE the best authority for saying that 

 President Seelye, of Amherst College, 

 is not satisfied with the interpretations which 

 have been put upon his letter to the " Ob- 

 server," to the effect that " groundless 

 guesses " are not yet taught at this college 

 " as ascertained truths of science," and that 

 the doctrine of the evolution of man, from 

 the monkey or from any of the irrational 

 animals, being in flat contradiction to all the 

 facts of history, is only fit to be left with 

 the sciolists. He is not willing that a wrong 

 impression should be given to the public 

 with respect to his attitude toward science 

 in general and the scientific doctrines of 

 evolution in particular ; and he claims that 

 it was very far from his intention, in his note 

 to the " Observer," to place his college or 

 himself in antagonism to either. It is only 

 just to him, therefore, that he should be set 

 right. I am authorized to say that he has 

 long " firmly believed the current doctrine 

 of evolution to contain a great truth, as 

 well as a subtile error." Moreover, he main- 

 tains that " all great truths, whether styled 

 evolution or otherwise, so far as they are 

 truly scientific, are taught and encouraged 

 at Amherst ; that all investigations of sci- 

 ence and all earnest efforts to widen the field 

 of our knowledge find a cordial welcome 

 there. In a word, that evolution, cosmologi- 

 cal and biological, so far as it is scientific, 

 is taught as a part of science ; but that 

 such atheistic, illegitimate, unscientific con- 

 clusions or assumptions as may apparently 

 flow from certain unwarranted expositions 

 of the law of evolution, together with all 

 other illogical, irrational, and unscientific 

 conclusions and dogmatic deliverances con- 

 stitute the ' groundless guesses ' and the 

 ' subtile error ' " to which he referred " and 

 that these find no favor at Amherst." Pres- 

 ident Seelye gives his unqualified assent to 

 and adopts this statement of his own, and 

 the position of the college, and thinks its 

 publication will do good. 



Besides, it appears that Le Conte's " Ge- 

 ology" was specially recommended by the 

 President to the Professor of Geology as a 

 text-book for his class before its introduc- 

 tion, and after a careful examination of the 

 work. Moreover, that the new department 

 in biology was introduced to the college 

 through President Seelye's own proposal 

 and urgency with the trustees, and this be- 

 cause he desired the college to have the best 



and largest teaching in so important a field ; 

 also that he turned the attention of the 

 present instructor in biology in that particu- 

 lar line, and sent word to him while in Ger- 

 many that he should especially make the ac- 

 quaintance of Haeckel and his work. The 

 President considers that he would be un- 

 worthy of his place if he were indifferent to 

 or intolerant of the investigations of sci- 

 ence, and expresses himself as the reverse 

 of hostile to free thinking. 



No lover of science can find any fault 

 with the position of President Seelye in its 

 new aspect, and it is certainly a matter for 

 regret that he has been placed at all in a 

 false or equivocal attitude. Of course, no 

 one who knows him can for an instant enter- 

 tain the thought that he intended to mislead 

 or supposed he would mislead by his former 

 statement. 



Upon such a platform, if faithfully ad- 

 hered to and its declarations rigorously car- 

 ried out, and under euch leadership, Am- 

 herst will certainly be entitled to a high 

 place among those institutions of broad and 

 thorough culture and catholicity of senti- 

 ment of which Harvard and the Johns Hop- 

 kins University are prominent examples 

 institutions which inspire confidence in 

 American scholarship at home and give it 

 character abroad. And the evolutionists at 

 Amherst, who are working in their special 

 departments, are to be most heartily con- 

 gratulated that, unlike their less fortunate 

 brethren at Yale, they at least have no one 

 more ready to support them and lead them 

 forward than the President of their own 

 college, who says it is his " full belief that 

 there was never more or better scientific 

 instruction given in Amherst than now." 

 Daniel G. Thompson. 



New York City, May 20, 18S0. 



CRAYFISH FOR STUDY. 

 Messrs. Editors. 



A class of about ten of our teachers 

 has been meeting once a week this term, 

 and, with Professor Huxley's book in one 

 hand and a crayfish in the other, we have 

 endeavored to verify the statements of the 

 book. 



After reading your notes on the distri- 

 bution of the animal in North America, the 

 thought occurred to me that it might be a 

 favor to some students to know where a 

 supply could be had. If you think it will 



