362 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



knowledge of what a coral reef is, have endeavored to master the very 

 difficult biological and geological problems involved in their study. I 

 happen to have spent the best part of three years among coral reefs 

 and to have made that attempt ; and, when Mr. Murray's work ap- 

 peared, I said to myself that until I had two or three months to give 

 to the I'enewed study of the subject in all its bearings, I must be con- 

 lent to remain in a condition of susi)cnded judgment. In the mean- 

 while, the man who would be voted by common acclamation as the 

 most competent person now living to act as umpire, has delivered the 

 verdict I have quoted ; and, to go no further, has fully justified the 

 hesitation I and others may have felt about expressing an opinion. 

 Under these circumstances, it seems to me to require a good deal of 

 courage to say " no serious reply has ever been attempted " ; and to 

 chide the men of science, in lofty tones, for their "reluctance to ad- 

 mit an error " which is not admitted ; and for their " slow and sulky 

 acquiescence " in a conclusion which they have the gravest warranty 

 for suspecting ! 

 Second : 



Darwin hiraseK had lived to hear of the new solution, and, with that splendid 

 candor which was eminent in him, his mind, though now grown old in liis own 

 early convictions, was at least ready to entertain it, and to confess that serious 

 doubts had been awakened as to the trutli of his famous theory (p. 252). 



I wish that Darwin's splendid candor could be conveyed by some 

 description of spiritual " microbe " to those who write about him, I 

 am not aware that Mr. Darwin ever entertained " serious doubts as to 

 the truth of his famous theory " ; and there is tolerably good evidence 

 to the contrary. The second edition of his work, published in 1876, 

 proves that he entertained no such doubts then ; a letter to Professor 

 Semper, whose objections, in some respects, forestalled those of Mr. 

 Murray, dated October 2, 1879, expresses his continued adherence to the 

 opinion " that the atolls and barrier reefs in the middle of the Pacific 

 and Indian Oceans indicate subsidence" ; and the letter of my friend 

 Professor Judd, printed at the end of this article (which I had perhaps 

 better say Professor Judd has not seen) will prove that this opinion 

 remained unaltered to the end of his life. 



Third : 



. . . Darwin's theory is a dream. It is not only unsound, hut it is in many 

 respects the reverse of truth. "With all his conscientiousness, with all his cau- 

 tion, with all his powers of observation, Darwin in this matter fell into errors 

 as profound as the abysses of the Pacific (p. 249). 



Really ? It seems to me that, under the circumstances, it is pretty 

 clear that these lines exhibit a lack of the qualities justly ascribed to 

 Mr. Darwin, which plunges their author into a much deeper abyss, 

 and one from which there is no hope of emergence. 



