52.1 THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY 



Virchow's speech was greeted with cheers by the conservatives; as a matter 

 of fact, its criticism of Haeckel's fantastic ideas was justified, but its peda- 

 gogical program was of doubtful value; it might reasonably be asked what 

 would be left if all hypothesis were banned in the schools — every explana- 

 tion of nature is fundamentally hypothetical, and much of the results of 

 historical research rests, of course, upon disputed facts. And even more un- 

 acceptable sounds his passing reference to the spiritual affinity of Darwinism 

 to socialism — a denunciation which at that time was equivalent to an ac- 

 cusation of high treason. Shortly after^vards the Prussian Minister of Edu- 

 cation sent round a circular strictly forbidding the schoolmasters in the 

 country to have anything to do with Darwinism, and in the new educational 

 law biology was entirely excluded from the curriculum for the highest 

 classes in the schools, with a view to protecting schoolchildren from the 

 dangers of the new doctrines. Haeckel replied to Virchow's speech in a pam- 

 phlet, Freie Wissenschaft und freie Lehre, in which he again formulates the 

 antithesis "Creation — Evolution," brings forward "certain proofs" of the 

 correctness of the theory of descent, declares that cell-psychology can be 

 traced to Virchow's own ideas, and finally urges the freedom of education 

 and Darwinism's independence of the political questions of the day. His reply 

 was hailed with enthusiasm by the free-thinkers and it is easy to realize 

 the eagerness with which the friends of the freedom of thought and word 

 must have gathered around him in spite of his many delusions, when such 

 measures as the school regulations mentioned above were adopted by the 

 opposite party. All the more so as the outcome proved Haeckel's justifica- 

 tion; Darwinism might be prohibited in the schools, but the idea of evolution 

 and its method penetrated everywhere, in historical research and linguistic 

 studies, and even in the scientific treatment of religious documents and reli- 

 gious history. And to this result Haeckel has undeniably contributed more 

 than most; everything of value in his utterances has become permanent, 

 while his blunders have been forgotten, as they deserve. 



Victory of Darivinism 

 During the eighties the dispute as to the justification of Darwinism died 

 down; Haeckel himself spent most of this period in studying the Radiolaria, 

 and his partisans likewise began to pursue other activities. Instead, that 

 decade was to witness the undisputed domination of comparative morphol- 

 ogy in biological research and training; it was at a time when Gegenbaur's 

 and Haeckel's ideas universally prevailed without opposition and were ap- 

 plied to various groups of the animal kingdom. But the results were in no 

 wise what Haeckel had anticipated. Instead of simple and easily compre- 

 hended proofs of the indisputable validity of Darwinism, the younger gen- 

 eration of scientific students found masses of involved facts, which only 

 contributed to confuse the biogenetical principle, the gastrasa theory, and 



