May, 1922 common misconceptions of evolution 187 



lowest animals, we arrive by gradual steps through the better 

 and better organization of a nervous system to a definite brain 

 and the improvement of this organ through various stages in 

 the vertebrates up to man, without a break. Parallel with 

 this we see the development of reflex action, experimental 

 behavior, instinct and learning, to intelligent behavior, inference 

 and rational purpose. 



The evolution theory has been before the world in a con- 

 crete form for more than sixty years and all scientific men, 

 or those capable of forming a worth-while opinion, have been 

 agreed on it almost without exception ever since the con- 

 vincing statement of the case by Charles Darwin. Scientific 

 men have generally shown themselves to be capable of forming 

 sane opinions in their own field, but the general public still 

 finds it a difficult matter to accept the word of the scientist, 

 especially when scientific fact seems opposed to some long- 

 standing belief, or common uncritically-judged experience. 

 After nearly 400 years following the announcement of the 

 Copernican theory, a fair share of people still believe the world 

 to be fiat, because all they can see of it looks that way. Many 

 more still believe in witch-craft or the influence of evil spirits, 

 and a still larger percentage hold firmly to the moon as a 

 causative agent in the growth of crops, the curing of meat, 

 etc., etc. 



After having written the above paragraph the writer came 

 across the following in the "Century Magazine" for February 

 (1922) in an article on "The American Gypsy," by K. 

 Bercovici: "The study of folk-lore * * * has demonstrated 

 that a certain stratum of the population is never reached by the 

 civilization of any given period. There are as many people 

 today who believe in witch-craft and black magic as there 

 were 500 years ago; as many people who go to fortune tellers 

 to have them read the cards, the palms, or tell the future as 

 seen in the bottom of an emptied coffee cup. " 



In the field of medicine, notwithstanding the advance of 

 science, the general public is as gullible as ever, in the matter 

 of cure-alls, elixirs and nostrums, advertised to heal all "the 

 ills that flesh is heir to. " A recent widely distributed adver- 

 tisement of Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills states for the benefit 

 of the public that "Malaria is due to a poisonous miasma, 

 which arising from the low swampy lands, becomes assimilated 



