THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



OCTOBER, 1877. 



BATHYBIUS AKD THE MONEES.* 



By Professor ERNST HAECKEL. 



'' |) ATHYBIUS, about which so much has been said, has no exist- 

 -L) ence ; the assumption of its existing rested on illusions. It 

 will be the same with the rest of the Moneres ; these supposed pri- 

 mordial organisms, too, will prove to be the product of erroneous 

 observation. So has one of the main supports of the modern devel- 

 opment doctrine fallen, and it will yet be found that all its other sup- 

 ports rest upon illusions and on error. The whole fabric of Darwin- 

 ism is simply an air-castle, the theory of natural selection is a soap- 

 bubble, and the doctrine of descent is not true." 



Such is the gist of many an article published during the past year 

 in all sorts of periodicals. Simply and solely from the supposed non- 

 existence of Bathybius it is rashly inferred that there is no such 

 thnig at all as Moneres, and that the doctrine of evolution is badly 

 hit. This assertion is of course made with most gusto by the oppo- 

 nents of the development theory. The clergy is already rejoicing 

 over the utter downfall of the theory of descent. But even among 

 the adherents of the theory of evolution, the non-existence of Bathyb- 

 ius is held to be proved, and from this fact a series of conclusions is 

 drawn which suggests more or less weighty objections against some 

 of the main principles of Darwinism, These circumstances, as also 

 the confusion of the public mind as to the actual state of the case, 

 have induced me to consider the Moneres question Avith special refer- 

 ence to Bathybius. It would appear to be specially my right, nay, 

 even my duty, to discuss this question, inasmuch as it was my dubi- 

 ous luck to have stood godfather to this " ill-famed primordial slime 

 of the sea-depths." When, in 1868, my friend Thomas Huxley gave 



* Translated from the German, by J. Fitzgerald, A. M. 

 VOL. XI. 41 



