344 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



This authoritative decree is both rash and intolerant. The 

 resolution-committee of the American Association is by no 

 means infallible, and, in the absence of infallibility, no group 

 of men should be so unmindful of their own limitations as to 

 strive to make their subjective views binding upon others. 

 Scientific questions are not settled by authority, but exclu- 

 sively by means of irresistible evidence, which is certainly 

 absent in the present case. Moreover, the declaration in 

 question is untrue; for many of the foremost paleontologists 

 and anthropologists of the day confess their complete ignor- 

 ance, as scientists, with respect to the origin of man. 



Dr. Clark Wissler, for example, who is the Curator-in-Chief 

 of the Anthropological section of the American Museum of 

 Natural History in New York City, made, in the course of 

 an interview published in the New York American of April 2, 

 1918, the following statement: "Man, like the horse or ele- 

 phant, just happened anyhow, so far as has been discovered 

 yet. As far as science has discovered, there always was a 

 man — some not so developed, but still human beings in all 

 their functions, much as we are to-day." Asked by the re- 

 porter, whether this did not favor the idea of an abrupt, un- 

 heralded appearance of man on earth. Doctor Wissler replied: 

 "Man came out of a blue sky as far as we have been able to 

 delve back." Fearing lest the reporter might have sensation- 

 alized his words, the writer took occasion to question the 

 learned anthropologist on the subject during the Pan Pacific 

 Conference held at Honolulu, Hawaii (Aug. 2-20, 1920). His 

 answer was that the foregoing citations were substantially 

 correct. 



The same verdict is given by the great palaeontologist. 

 Prof. W. Branco, Director of the Institute of Geology and 

 Palaeontology at the University of Berlin. In his discourse 

 on "Fossil Man" delivered August 16, 1901, before the Fifth 

 International Zoological Congress at Berlin, Branco said, with 

 reference to the origin of man: "Palaeontology tells us nothing 

 on the subject — it knows no ancestors of man." The well- 



