PROFESSOR vuiciiow AND ^VOLUTION. 049 
early now to ask what progress that bold theory has made 
in scientific estimation. Since the * Origin' appeared it 
has passed through four English editions,* two American, 
two German, two French, several Eussian, a Dutch, and 
an Italian edition. So far from Natural Selection being a 
thing of the past [the ' Athenaeum' had stated it to be 
so] it is an accepted doctrine with almost every philo- 
sophical naturalist, including, it will always be understood, 
a considerable proportion who are not prepared to admit 
that it accounts for all Mr. Darwin assigns to it." In the 
following year, at Innsbruck, Helmholtz took up the same 
ground, f Another decade has now passed, and he is 
simply blind who cannot see the enormous progress made 
by the theory during that time. SonTe of the~6utward and 
visible signs of this advance are readily indicated. A The 
hostility and fear which so long prevented the recognition 
of Mr. Darwin by his own university have vanished, and 
this year Cambridge, amid universal acclamation, con- 
ferred on him her Doctor's degree. ' The Academy of 
Sciences in Paris, which had so long persistently closed its 
doors against Mr. Darwin, has also yielded at last; while 
sermons, lectures, and published articles plainly show that 
even the clergy have, to a great extent, become acclimatized 
to the Darwinian air. My brief reference to Mr. Darwin 
in the Birmingham Address was based upon the knowledge 
that such changes had been accomplished, and were still 
going on. 
That the lecture of Professor Virchow can, to any 
practical extent, disturb this progress of public faith in the 
theory of evolution, I do not believe. That the special 
lessons of caution which he inculcates were exemplified by 
me, years before his voice was heard upon this subject, has 
* Published by Mr. John Murray, the English publisher of Vir- 
chow's lecture. Bane and antidote are thus impartially distributed 
by the same hand. 
f " Noch besteht lebhafter Streit urn die Wahrheit oder Wahr- 
scheinlichkeit von Darwin's Theorie; er dreht sich aber doch eigent- 
lich nur um die Grenzen, welche wir fur die Veranderlichkeit der 
Arten annehmen dlirfen. Dass innerhalb derselben Species erbliche 
Racenverschiedenheiten auf die von Darwin beschriebeue Weise zu 
kommen konnen, ja dass viele der bisher als verschiedene Species 
derselben Gattung betrachteten Formen von derselben Urform 
abstammen, werden auch seine (iegner kaum leugnen." (Popular^ 
Vortrage.) 
