53 



that there is such a principle at work or indeed 

 that there is such a principal at all, is that 

 some varieties of mullein are somewhat eccen 

 tric in their behavior. Of course Father Was- 

 mann is too sensible a man to regard this as a 

 proof, and so we may dismiss it. We wish 

 Father Wasmann's judgment had been as cor 

 rect in dealing with the "indirect proofs." 



Proofs from Paleontology. 



His indirect proofs are from paleontology 

 and, it is hardly necessary to say, are affected 

 by the constitutional weakness which are char 

 acteristic of all the proofs from this quarter in 

 favor of evolution. Father Wasmann furnishes 

 no new principle and not even any new variety 

 of fact, although his facts are taken from his 

 own observation in his own special department 

 of ants and cockroaches. 



"There are," he tells us, "hundreds of kinds 

 of ants, which we know through their having 

 been preserved to us in the tertiary amber of 

 the Baltic and Sicily. Amongst them occur 

 several genera which still exist, but scarcely a 

 species that is identical with the present ones. 



