NA TURE 



13 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER i, 1923. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



The Revolt against the Teaching of Evolution in the 



United States. By Dr. W. Bateson, F.R.S. 

 The Unity of Anthropology. By Dr. B. Malinowski 

 Sexual Physiology. By F. A. E. C. 

 Applied Organic Chemistry and International Trade 

 Relativity Problems ...... 



Geographical Influences. By Geo. G. Chisholm 

 Our Bookshelf ....... 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Photochemical Production of Formaldehyde. — Prof. 

 E. C. C. Baly, F.R.S., Prof. I. M. Heilbron, 



and W. F. Barker 



Correlation of Upper Air Variables. — Prof. P. C. 



Mahalanobis ; The Writer of the Note . 

 Tubular Cavities in Sarsens. — C. Carus- Wilson . 

 Barometric Pressure in High Latitudes. — L. C. W. 

 Bonacina ....... 



Is there a Change of Wave-length on Reflection of 

 X-rays from Crystals? — G. E. M. Jauncey and 



Carl H. Eckart 



On the Structure of the Molecule. ( With Diagrams. ) 

 — A, Pearse Jenkin .... 



A Primitive Lens. — Sir R. A. S. Paget, Bart. 

 Baluchitberlum osborni and its Relations, (///us- 



t rated.) By C. Forster- Cooper 

 Nutrition Problems during Famine Conditions 



Russia. By Prof. Boris Slovtzov 

 Current Topics and Events .... 



Our Astronomical Column ... 

 Research Items ...... 



The Liverpool Meeting of the British Association. 



Programmes of tiik Sections 

 The Hydrogen Molecule. {Illustrated.) By Prof. H. 

 Stanley Allen ...... 



The Liverpool Observatory (Bidston) 



The Eleventh International Physiological Congress 



A Seventeenth-Century University of London. By 



E. D 



313 

 314 

 317 

 318 



319 

 320 

 320 



323 



323 

 324 



325 



325 



326 

 326 



327 



328 

 331 

 333 

 334 



336 



340 



341 

 342 



343 



Immigration and Degeneracy m the United States. 



P>y W. J. Perry 344 



Fire Hazards and Fire Extinction on Oilfields. By 



H. B. Milner 344 



The Greenwich Magnetic Observatory. Proposed 



KEMOVAI, 10 HoI.MliLIRY lilLI, .... 345 



Academ c Biology 346 



University and Educational Intelligence . . . 346 



Societies and Academies ..... 347 



Official Publications Received .... 348 

 Recent Scientific and Technical Books . . Supp. v. 



Editorial and. Publishing Offices : 



MACMILLAN 6- CO.. LTD., 



ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON, W.C.2. 



Advertisements and business letters should be 



addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial communications to the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address: PHUSIS, LONDON. 

 Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. 



NO. 2809, VOL. I 12] 



The Revolt against the Teaching of 

 Evolution in the United States. 



THE movement in some of the Southern and 

 Western United States to suppress the teaching 

 of evolution in schools and universities is an interesting 

 and somewhat disconcerting phenomenon. As it was 

 I who, all unwittingly, dropped the spark which started 

 the fire, I welcome the invitation of the Editor of 

 Nature to comment on the consequences. 



First as to my personal share in the matter. At the 

 Toronto meeting of the American Association I was 

 addressing a scientific gathering, mainly professional. 

 The opportunity was unique inasmuch as the audience 

 included most of the American geneticists, a body 

 several hundreds strong, who have advanced that 

 science with such extraordinary success. I therefore 

 took occasion to emphasise the fact that though no 

 one doubts the truth of evolution, we have as yet no 

 satisfactory account of that particular part of the 

 theory which is concerned with the origin of species in 

 the strict sense. The purpose of my address was to 

 urge my colleagues to bear this part of the problem 

 constantly in mind, for to them the best chances of a 

 solution are likely to occur. This theme was of course 

 highly academic and technical. Nevertheless, to 

 guard against misrepresentation, I added the following 

 paragraph by the advice of a friend whose judgment 

 proved sound, though to me such an addition looked 

 superfluous. 



" I have put before you very frankly the considera- 

 tions which have made us agnostic as to the actual 

 mode and processes of evolution. When such confes- 

 sions are made the enemies of science see their chance. 

 If we cannot declare here and now how species arose, 

 they will obligingly offer us the solutions with which, 

 obscurantism is satisfied. Let us then proclaim in 

 precise and unmistakable language that our faith in 

 evolution is unshaken. Every available line of argu- 

 ment converges on this inevitable conclusion. The 

 obscurantist has nothing to suggest which is worth a 

 moment's attention. The difficulties which weigh 

 upon the professional biologist need not trouble the 

 layman. Our doubts are not as to the reality or truth 

 of evolution, but as to the origin of species, a technical, 

 almost domestic, problem. Any day that mystery may 

 be solved. The discoveries of the last twenty-five years 

 enable us for the first time to discuss these questions 

 intelligently and on a basis of fact. That synthesis 

 will follow on analysis, we do not and cannot doubt." 



The season must have been a dull one, for upon this 

 rather cold scent the more noisy newspapers went off 

 full cry, with scare-headings " Darwin Downed," and 

 the like. 



