May, 1922 common misconceptions of evolution 191 



propagandists. The facts and discoveries of science are so 

 interesting to them that they go from one research to another 

 without attempting to make clear to others what they have 

 accomplished. If investigators are constitutionally unable to 

 make their meaning clear to the reading public, then we need 

 a group of interpreters who will make it their purpose in life 

 to investigate the investigators and make known the truths of 

 science to the masses of people who may be able to understand, 

 if the facts are written in their language. 



Just where does the evolution theory stand today in the 

 minds of scientific men engaged on problems connected with 

 this field of knowledge. 



1. That there has been a cosmic evolution, no one familiar 

 with the facts can doubt, though we may still be unsatisfied as 

 to the truth of the nebular hypothesis of Laplace or the aggrega- 

 tion theory of Chamberlain as they concern the formation of 

 the earth. 



2. That there has been evolution, in the form of progressive 

 changes of the earth itself, no one capable of forming a proper 

 judgment can doubt, though we may still question the number 

 of aeons it has taken to round the surface of the earth into its 

 present form, and the exact mode of formation of certain rocks 

 and strata may still puzzle us somewhat. 



3. That there has been an evolution of organic life on the 

 earth no one familiar with the accumulated data will doubt for 

 a moment. The facts are so patent that one does not even 

 have to possess a very logical mind to be convinced of the 

 truth. The succession of animals and plants from lower to 

 higher forms in past time, as shown by paleontological studies, 

 is as clear and straightforward as any story which research 

 has ever brought to hght. This, coupled with the facts of 

 embryology and comparative anatomy, yields a truth which 

 no unprejudiced man can deny. For any one to do so merely 

 proclaims his narrow-mindedness and prejudice and classes 

 him among those of the last degree of blindness who "will 

 not see." 



4. That modern man himself is just as patently a product 

 of evolution is clear to anyone familiar with the findings of 

 paleontological anthropology, even if we do not consider the 

 evidence from embryology and comparative anatomy. Our 

 knowledge of fossil man takes us back through several extinct 



