A DEFINITION OF EVOLUTION 



has been disproven. Unlike Darwin, he was loath to admit of factors other 

 than natural selection in the origin of species. 



Also prominent during the Romantic Period were Darwin's cousin, 

 Francis Galton, and Karl Pearson. In many respects, these men were 

 much more akin to the Period of Modern Synthesis, for they laid the basis 

 for the new sciences of statistics and biometry which play so prominent 

 a role in modern evolutionary studies. 



THE AGNOSTIC PERIOD 



Such uncritical enthusiasm can hardly fail to cause a wave of skepticism 

 and disillusionment in its wake, and so the Agnostic Period set in soon 

 after the turn of the century. Many factors converged to cause this. In 

 part, it resulted from the palpably false extremes of interpretation of evi- 

 dence which were so common during the Romantic Period. A second 

 factor was the rediscovery of Mendel's laws of heredity. Today Mendelism 

 is the foundation of most studies in evolution, but then the permanence of 



I'iGUHK 29. Statue of 

 Mknoel at Brunn, by 



CllIAHLEMONT. ( IltiS, 



"Life of Mendel," W. 

 W. Norton & Co., Inc., 

 1932.) 



82 



