Page Eight 



E \^ O L U T I O N 



August, 1929 



EUOLUTION 



A Journal of Nature 



To combat bigotry and superstition and 



develop the open mind by popularizing 



natural science 



Published monthly by 



Evolution Publishing Corporation 



96 Fifth Ave., New York. N. Y. 



Tel.: Watkins 75 87 



L. E. KattERFELD, Managing Editor 



Allan Strong BROMS, Science Editor 



Subscription rate: One dollar per year 

 In lists of five or more, fifty cents. 

 Foreign subscriptions ten cents extra. 



Single copy 10c; 20 or more. 5c each. 



Entered as second class matter at the 

 Post Office at New York. N. Y.. January 

 7. 1928. under the Act of March 3. 1879. 



N'OL. II, No. S. 



AUGUST, 1929 



IF YOU HAVE A NEW ADDRESS 



notif}' us promptly, giving- also your 

 old address, so we can correct mail- 



inar list. 



THAT TRUTH MAY PREVAIL 



Among scientific men there is a con- 

 tinuous exchange of facts and opinions, 

 the discovery and passing along of new 

 knowledge and a consequent recasting 

 of old theories to fit the new facts. 

 Theories are frankly held subject to 

 change, held now because they seem 

 best to fit the known facts, but pre- 

 tending to no finality at all. And this 

 attitude holds for even those opinions 

 most firmly evidenced and accepted, as 

 witness the Einstein criticism of the 

 "law of gravitation." Which all goes 

 to say that your typical scientist is 

 modestly open-minded. To him there 

 is no last word, no final authority. 



Therefore he is ever exploring, ever 

 criticizing, ever thinking. Out of this 

 comes more knowledge — and clearer 

 theoretical guidance in the quest for 

 still more truth. And it all comes of 

 intellectual honesty which withholds 

 no fact for fear of its logical con- 

 sequences and spares no opinion what- 

 ever its source. 



This attitude is one that fundamental- 

 ists, set on proving their "word of 

 God," cannot appreciate at its honest 

 worth. When a scientific evolutionist 

 revises his theory, be it in most minor 

 detail, they distort it into a general 

 retreat and proclaim it victoriously far 

 and wide. He honestly states facts 

 that cast doubt and they magnify that 

 into full confession. Your scientist is 

 being honest and they Jesuitical. That 

 the truth may prevail, he states the 

 whole case, doubts and all. For the 

 "glory" of their gods they practice 

 sophistry and appeal to prejudice. And 

 so It is that he advances truth, while 

 thev obstruct it. — .Mlau S. Broms. 



MECHANIST VERSUS VITALIST 



"When the subject (of life) is rea- 

 soned about in terms of cause and ef- 

 fect, one group of thinkers, who call 

 themselves vitalists, holds that life is 

 rh'.e to the presence in living organisms 

 of some 'all-controlling, unknown, and 

 unknow-able,. mystical, hyper-mechan- 

 ical force.' Such a view of life is 

 satisfying only to the reasoning of the 

 dogmatic thinker. It does not prove 

 helpful to the scientist because it 

 closes the mind to observable and veri- 

 fiable fact when in search for truth; 

 it removes the whole subject of adap- 

 tation to environment from the realm 

 of investigation. No biologist makes 

 use of such a working hypothesis — 

 however useful the concept may be as 

 a premise for the philosophical reason- 

 ing of an absolutist. There is a tinge 

 of vitalism in the philosophy of a 

 goodly number of those who consider 

 themselves scientific; but to this ex- 

 tent they limit the range of their ob- 

 servations — they inhibit the use of their 

 powers of induction. 



"A far more satisfactory hypothesis 

 or viewpoint for the study of vital 

 phenomena, and one strictly in accord 

 with scientific method, is called the 

 mechanistic z'ieziK The vie-v\-point here 

 taken is that this conception is con- 

 sistent with the premises and working 

 hypothesis used by the other natural 

 scientists — the only one that is con- 

 sistent with reasoning about the facts 

 which stare the biologist in the face 

 when he looks at the structure and 

 functioning of ors?anic tissue through a 

 microscope. In other words, the point 

 of view which has proved of the 

 greatest advantage for scientific ob- 

 servation is, that life is a manifestation 

 of energy in a neculiar kind of mechan- 

 ism — 'a new kind of world stuff' which 

 is the phvsical basis of biolotrical sci- 

 ence." — H. H. Newman in "Modern 

 Scientific Knowledge." 



should net study the earth or the stars, 

 the plants, the animals, the growth of 

 humanity." Luther Burbank says : 

 "Those who would legislate against the 

 teachings of evolution should also legis- 

 late against gravity, electricity and the 

 unreasonable velocity of light, and also 

 should introduce a clause to prevent the 

 use of the telescope, the microscope and 

 the spectroscope or any other instru- 

 ment of precision which inay in future 

 l;e invented, constructed or used for the 

 discovery of truth," Dr. Henry Fair- 

 field Osborn expressed the views of all 

 broadly educated men and women, and 

 completely confuted the claims of "Bible 

 opponents" of evolution, in saying: "No 

 teacher can possibly teach zoology or 

 any other branch of science truthfully 

 and intelligently if evolution is left out; 

 the cutting out of evolution from edu- 

 cation is exactly like taking the heart 

 from the body, for evolution is at the 

 very heart or center of education and 

 always will be." 



Anti-evolution laws will be ignored 

 the same as the law against teaching 

 that the earth moves. This also con- 

 flicts with the Bible which states that 

 Joshua made the sun stand still. Evolu- 

 tion is now being taught in all three of 

 our anti-evolution states, by calling it 

 "development." What I object to is that 

 these laws cultivate hypocrisy. They 

 are turning our schools into "speak- 

 easies" and our teachers into "boot- 

 leggers." Bob Lyle, 



REGARDING "THE CAUSE" 



IT seems to worrv the fundamentalists 

 a lot that "Evolution teaches an ef- 

 fect or result without any cause." If 

 evolution could teach the "cause" it 

 would be an exception to all other 

 natural laws. Does the law that "Water 

 seeks its own level" teach anvthins about 

 a cause? We know that water does seek 

 its own level, because that hannens to 

 be the wav this law operates. Through 

 investigation we find that the earth pulls 

 heavier obiects toward its center, and 

 this is called the law of sravitv. Why 

 accent these laws as perfectly natural, 

 while demanding that evolution show 

 some cause — a supernatural cause pre- 

 ferred? 



Dr. David .Starr Jordan, of Leland 

 Stanford Universitv. savs : "Kvoltitton 

 nnd nature mean the same thine — 'Or- 

 derly change.' To say that we should 

 not study evolution is to say that we 



AN EVENT WE ENJOYED 



One of EVOLUTION'S most inter- 

 ested friends, Mr, A. Nielen, a youth 

 of eighty years, world traveler, philos- 

 opher and photo artist, was a caller in 

 New York last week. He delighted a 

 group of New York readers of EVO- 

 LUTION with a travelog, "A Trip 

 Around The World," showing several 

 hundred beautifully colored lantern 

 slides of "the quaint, the queer and 

 the beautiful," made from photos 

 taken by himself. Mr. Nielen has an 

 exceptional sense for the interesting 

 and picturesque, and some of his slides 

 are the most wonderful we have ever 

 seen. His remarks while showing them 

 were delightfully entertaining and con- 

 tained many gems of wisdom. We 

 look forward to another showing when 

 he returns. 



SKIP SEPTEMBER 

 Our next issue, Vol. II, No. 6, will 

 be out the last of September, but 

 drited October. 



GIVE IT TO YOUR FRIENDS 



The article on next page, "Our 

 Knowledge of Man," by Dr, Hrdlicka 

 of Smithsonian Institution, appeared 

 as editorial in The Outlook, We shall 

 reprint it also as a leaflet ($1.00 per 

 100, $5.00 per 1,000). Help distribute 

 it far and wide. 



