vii HASISADRA'S ADVENTURE 285 



subject from the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This was in 

 February, 1877." The next paragraph, however, contains the 

 confession: "No special reason was assigned." The Duke of 

 Argyll proceeds to give a speculative opinion that "Sir Wyville 

 dreaded some injury to the scientific reputation of the body of 

 which he was the chief. " Truly, a very probable supposition ; bnt 

 as Sir Wyville Thomson's tendencies were notoriously anti- 

 Darwinian, it does not appear to me to lend the slightest justi- 

 fication to the Duke of Argyll's insinuation that the Darwinian 

 "terror" influenced him. However, the question was finally 

 sot at rest by a letter which appeared in "Nature" (29th of 

 December, 1887), in which the writer says that : 



talking with Sir Wyville about "Murray's new theory," I 

 asked what objection he had to its being brought before the 

 public ? The answer simply was : he considered that the 

 grounds of the theory had not, as yet, been sufficiently investigated 

 or sufficiently corroborated, and that therefore any immature, 

 dogmatic publication of it would do less than little service 

 either to science or to the author of the paper. 



Sir Wyville Thomson was an intimate friend of mine, and I 

 am glad to have been afforded one more opportunity of clearing 

 his character from the aspersions which have been so recklessly 

 cast upon his good sense and his scientific honour. 



(6) As to the "overthrow" of Darwin's theory, which, 

 according to the Duke of Argyll, was patent to every un- 

 prejudiced person four years ago, I have recently become 

 acquainted with a work, in which a really competent authority, 1 

 thoroughly acquainted with all the new lights which have been 

 thrown upon the subject during the last ten years, pronounces 

 the judgment ; firstly, that some of the facts brought forward 

 by Messrs. Murray and Guppy against Darwin's theory are not 

 facts ; secondly, that the others are reconcilable with Darwin's 

 theory ; and, thirdly, that the theories of Messrs. Murray and 



1 Dr. Langenbeck, Die Theorien uber die Entstehung der 

 Korallen- Inseln und Korallen-2ii/e (p. 13), 1890. 



