74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



indications which prejudges, as it were, the whole result to 

 which I am alluding, by assuring us that what has been the case 

 in former ages will continue to be so ; that an improved agri- 

 culture is no more to produce another kind of thing from one 

 kind of seed than has been the case ; and as long as agriculture 

 is not to be so transformed^but only improved, we shall not have 

 from agriculture evidence of the correctness of the Darwinian 

 doctrine ; we shall have no support for this transmutation theory 

 from it, but only a succession of severe blows, which are coming 

 so rapidly that I trust the doctrine will not live much longer. 

 But it lives now, and lives with a tenacity, a vivacity and a 

 pugnacity which are quite remarkable ; and we must meet it 

 with no other spirit than that of trying to know the truth. I 

 hail with delight every new production from that school, because 

 it will run its course quicker. I wish its ablest representatives 

 to come out strong and fast, because it will the sooner have 

 presented its whole strength. And so it is with all excitement 

 — the sooner it comes to a climax the sooner is the fever over. 



But, gentlemen, I do not speak with the intention of ridi- 

 culing these men and their doings. They have produced 

 remarkable works ; and none so beautiful, none so extensive, 

 none so thorough, as the works of the very head man of the 

 transmutation doctrine. Few naturalists have equal powers 

 with Darwin ; few naturalists are so thorough as he ; few natu- 

 ralists are more conscientious in their researches. I know him 

 well, and I respect him ; but I believe he is wrong in his inter- 

 pretations of nature and the facts, and that is the reason why I 

 hope that his followers, who are the exaggerators of what he has 

 done, who, like all extreme sectarians who run into fanaticism, 

 overdo the thing in such a way as to make it ridiculous, — that 

 is the reason why I hope they may be met and silenced. That 

 is just the point where we are ; and as evidence that £ am not 

 painting my picture in too strong colors, I will tell you what has 

 lately been published. A German professor, Heakel, who is 

 director of the Museum of the University of Vienna, a thor- 

 ough naturalist, perfectly conversant with the whole animal 

 kingdom, who has published interesting investigations upon 

 embryological topics, and upon matters connected with compara- 

 tive anatomy and zoology, has within a few months published a 

 work on the distribution of the animal kingdom from four prim- 



