DISCUSSION 159 



have heard ad nauseam, and it was obviously out 

 of place, for Professor Waldeyer, who was presiding, 

 had said when opening the discussion : I have 

 taken the chair assuming that the proceedings are 

 to be strictly limited to calm, genuine, and scien 

 tific expressions of opinion. 



This was the reason why, in my closing speech, 

 I simply disregarded Count von Hoensbroech s 

 remarks as being out of order. 



VII. MR. ITELSON S SPEECH. 



In spite of the benevolent intention of the speaker 

 to prove, from an historical standpoint, that there 

 was something pleasant about Father Wasmann s 

 appearance as a scientist, notwithstanding the 

 oppression of the Church, this speech too will not 

 be reported in detail, for it, like the one that 

 preceded it, had nothing to do with the subject 

 treated of in my lectures. It consisted of historical 

 platitudes about the presumable decay and crum 

 bling away of the rock of the ecclesiastical theory 

 of life, as the waves of science encroached upon it. 

 Unlike von Hoensbroech, who had simply denied 

 me the possibility of free research, Itelson thought 

 that he might describe me as a fragment of the 

 Christian rock, already in process of disintegration. 

 My answer on this topic was given him in my 

 closing speech. 



