154 Kansas Academy of Science. 



FIFTY YEARS OF EVOLUTION. 



By Alton Howard Thompson, Topeka. 



DURING the past year, 1909, many memorial exercises and 

 celebrations were held commemorative of the centenary of 

 Charles Darwin's birth and of the fiftieth anniversary of the pub- 

 cation of "The Origin of Species." Meetings were held by colleges, 

 universities and scientific societies throughout the world, at which 

 many symposiums and addresses were given bearing upon Darwin 

 and his wonderful work and its effect upon science and the world. 

 From some of these addresses I have endeavored to glean material 

 for a brief review of what evolution has accomplished in the last 

 half century, without pretending to any completeness in any direc- 

 tion. It will be an informal talk upon an exhaustless theme. I 

 hope that it may contribute to our better appreciation of the fact 

 that the value of Darwin's work to the world cannot be overesti- 

 mated. It can only be compared to that of Copernicus and Sir 

 Isaac Newton in its epoch-making influence. His promulgation 

 of evolution as a scientific principle certainly ranks with the coper- 

 nican theory of the universe and with gravitation in the revolution 

 it produced in the scientific world. All three of these great dis- 

 coveries mark the birth of new working principles and the inaugu- 

 ration of new methods of thought. Old beliefs and methods were 

 swept aside by master hands and new and wonderful principles 

 were established and new sciences were created. New ways of 

 looking at life and the universe were formulated ^and the horizon 

 of the human mind was extended. This is especially true of evo- 

 lution as a new principle of science. How it has extended and en- 

 larged our knowledge of life and of the world within the memory 

 of men now living ! Most of us remember the fierce conflict of 

 forty years ago between the teleologists and the evolutionists — 

 popularly known as the special creationists and the Darwinians — 

 and those battles were worth all that they cost in the enlargement 

 and liberty they gave to the human mind. We are freer to-day to 

 say and write what we think because of those battles. More than 

 that, the idea of evolution itself gives a grasp of the universe in all 

 of its beauty and grandeur that the old, rigid conceptions did not 

 c jnfer. We are greater and wiser to-day because of what evolution 

 has done for us. Mankind is on a higher plane and the world is 

 better because of the light that has come to us through a better 



