I6O EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



Anthropological Association, words that still 

 remain final: 



No one doubted (at the first general meeting of the German 

 Anthropological Association) that the proof would be forth- 

 coming demonstrating that man was descended from a monkey, 

 and that this descent from a monkey, or at least from some 

 kind of animal, would soon be established. This was a 

 challenge which was made and successfully defended in the 

 first battle. Everybody knew all about it and was interested 

 in it Some spoke for it; some against it. It was considered 

 the great question of anthropology. Let me remind you, how- 

 ever, at this point, that natural science, so long as it remains 

 such, works only with real existing objects. A hypothesis may 

 be discussed, but its significance can be established only by pro- 

 ducing actual proofs in its favor, either by experiments or 

 direct observation. This Darwinism has not succeeded in 

 doing. In vain have its adherents sought for connecting links 

 which should connect man with the monkey. Not a single one 

 has been found. The so-called Pro-anthropos, which is sup- 

 posed to represent this connecting link, has not yet appeared 

 No real scientist claims to have seen him. w 



Virchow never changed, and never had reason 

 to change his opinion. "The Pro-anthropos does 

 not exist," he declared with emphasis at a later 

 period, "the man-ape does not exist; the missing 

 link remains a phantom." And every true scien- 

 tist must agree with him. Such, too, was the 

 testimony of the famous paleontologist Banco, 

 already quoted. Here then is the evidence of two 



" P P- J 54> 155. The statement that Virchow's "vast knowl- 

 edge and range of thought have been somewhat neutralized by 

 his excessive conservatism," is merely another way of saying, 

 as Windle rightly interprets it, that Virchow had not the good 

 sense to agree with these gentlemen when they leaped to rash 

 conclusions. 



