156 LE NATURALISTE CANADIEN 



SCIENTISTS TAKE DEFENSIVE 

 ON THE DARWINIAN THEORY 



A WEAK Attempt to Bolster Up A Cause That is Con- 



STANTLY LOSING GrOUND DiSCREDITED BY THE FlNDINGS- 



OF Abbot Mendel. 



C'ambridge, Mass., Jan. 2. — Forcecl to a défense of the theoiy 

 of évolution by récognition of the fact that it has been gradually 

 losing its hold during the past few years, and by the successful 

 attacks that hâve been made upon it by distinguished scientists, 

 the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, meeting hère recently, went on record, by resolution, 

 as affirming that " no scientific generalization is more strongly 

 supported by thoroughly tested évidence than that of organic 

 évolution. " 



The action of the Council is regarded as an attempt to counter 

 not only the powerful blows that hâve been leveled at the free 

 and gênerai acceptance of organic évolution by leading scientists, 

 but as an attempt to meet the attacks on the theory by legis- 

 lators in varions states, many of whom hâve contended that the 

 theory of évolution was a mère guess which many leading scien- 

 tists were abandoning. 



The resolution adopted, which was prepared by a spécial 

 committee composed of Edwin Grant Conklin, of Princton, 

 Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, of the Amei'ican Muséum of Natural 

 History, and Dr. Charles B. Davenport, director of the Depart- 

 ment of Genetics at the Carnegie Institute, is aiso regarded as 

 an attempt to counter the effect of such utterances as that of 

 Dr. Herbert Spencer Jennings, director of the biological labora- 

 tories of John Hopkins University, who, in speaking at the joint 

 célébration in honour of the Catholic scientists, Mendel and 

 Pasteur, last month, under the auspices of St. Louis University, 

 pointed out that the evolutionary théories of Darwin hâve been 

 discredited by the findings of the Catholic monk, Mendel, and 

 predicted that it will be upon Mendelism, rather than upon 



