March 8, 1877] 



NATURE 



411 



I suppose you will like to give to both letters a 

 place in your very estimable journal, and therefore I 

 have the honour to forward them to you. 



P. Harting, 

 Professor, University, Utrecht. 



Roller dam, 6th February, 1877 



SiK, — In the early part of the present century there resided 

 in Amsterdam a physician, Dr. J. E. Doornik, who, in 1816, 

 took his departure for Java, and passed the remainder of his life 

 for the greater part in India, His name, though little known 

 dsewhere than in the Netherlands, yet well deserves to be held 

 in remembrance, since he occupies an honourable place among 

 the pioneers of the theory of development. Among his nume- 

 rous publications on natural philosophy, with a view to this, are 

 wortiiy of mention his " Wijsgeerig-natuurkundig onderzoek 

 aangaande den vorspronkelijken mensch en de vorspronkelijke 

 stammen van deszelfs geslacht" (" Philosophic Researches con- 

 cerning Original Man and the Origin of his Species "). and his 

 treatise, " Over het begrip van levenskracht uit een geologisch 

 oogpunt beschouwd" ("On the Idea of Vitality considered 

 from a Geological Point of View "). The first already appeared 

 in 1808 ; the latter, though written about the same time, was 

 published in 181 6, together with other papers more or less simi- 

 lar in tendency, under the title of " Wijsgeerig-natuurkundige 

 verbandelingen " ("Treatises on the Philosophy of Natural His- 

 tory "). In these publications we recognise Doornik as a decided 

 advocate of the theory that the various modifications in which life 

 was revealed in consecutive times originated each from the other. 

 He already occupies the point of vantage on which, shortly 

 afterwards, Lamarck, with reference to the animal kingdom, and 

 in his wake, Prevost and Lyell, with respect to the geological 

 history of our globe, have taken their stand. 



Yet the seeds scattered by Dr. Doornik did not take root in 

 fertile soil. It is true that a Groningen professor, G. Bakker, 

 combated at great length some of his arguments regarding the 

 origin of man ; it attracted but little public attention, and they 

 soon passed into oblivion. 



A generation had passed away ere the theory of evolution 

 began to attract more attention in the Netherlands. The im- 

 liulse was given by the appearance of the well-known work, 

 "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation," of which a 

 Dutch translation was published in 1849 by Dr. T. H. van den 

 Uroek, Professor of Chemistry at the Mihtary Medical College 

 in Utrecht, with an introductory preface by the celebrated che- 

 nn:>t. Prof. G. T. Mulder, as well known in England as else- 

 where. This work excited a lively controversy, but its oppo- 

 nents were more numerous than its partisans. Remarkably 

 enough, it found more favour with the general public, and espe- 

 cially with some theologians of liberal principles, than with the 

 representatives of the natural sciences. The majority of zoolo- 

 gists and botanists of any celebrity in the Netherlands looked 

 upon the writer's opinions as a chimera, and speculated on the 

 weaker points rather than on the merits of the work. Notwith- 

 standing, this presented no obstacle to a comparative success, 

 and in 1854, even a third edition of the translation was pub- 

 lished, enriched by the translator with numerous annotations. 



Among the few Dutch savants to recognise the light which the 

 theory of development spreads over creation, must be men- 

 tioned two Utrecht professors, viz., F. C. Donders and P, 

 Halting. The former, in his inaugural address pronounced in 

 1S48, " De Harmonic van het dierlijk leven, de openbaring van 

 welten"("The Harmony of Animal Life, the Revelation of 

 Lav/s "), expressed his opinion that, in the gradual change of 

 form consequent upon change of circumstances, may lie the cause 

 of the origin of differences which we are now wont to designate 

 as species. The latter, in the winter of 1856, delivered a series of 

 lectures before a mixed audience, on "The History of Creation," 

 >vhich he published the following year under the title of 

 " Voorwereldlijke Scheppingen " ( " Antemundane Creations"), 

 with a diffuse supplement devoted to a critical consideration of 

 1h^ theory of development. Though herein he came to a stand- 

 till with a "non liquet," yet it cannot be denied that there 

 leamed through it his prepossession in favour of a theory which 

 hcveral years later his lamed and learned colleague, J. van der 

 Iloeven, Professor at Leyden, making a well-known French 

 writer's woids his own, was accustomed to signalise as an ex- 

 planation, " de I'inconnu par I'impossible." 



In 1858 your illustrious countryman, Sir Charles Lyell, was 

 staying for a few days in Utrecht. In the course of conversa- 



tions with this distinguished savant on the theory of develop- 

 ment, for which Lyell himself, at least in his writings, had 

 shown himself no pleader, the learned of this country were first 

 made observant of what had been and what was being done in 

 that direction in England. He attracted attention to the treatise 

 of Wallace in the Journal of the Linnean Society, and related 

 how his friend Darwin had been occupied for years in an earnest 

 study of this subject, and that ere long a work would appear 

 from his pen, which, in his opinion, would make a considerable 

 impression. From these conversations it was evident that Lyell 

 himself was wavering. In the following edition of his " Prin- 

 ciples of Geology," he declared himself, as we know, a partisan 

 of the hypothesis of development, and Prof. Harting speedily 

 followed in the same track. In his " Algemeene Dierkurdj" 

 (" General Zoology "), published in 1862, he was able to declare 

 himself with full conviction a partisan of this hypothesis. Also 

 another famous savant, Miquel, Professor of Botany at Utrecht, 

 who had previously declared himself an opponent of the Theory 

 of Development, became a convert to it in his later years, for 

 although this is not expressed in his published writings, it was 

 clearly manifest in his private conversation and in his lectures. 

 To what must this conversion be attributed? With Harting and 

 Miquel, as well as with Lyell and so many others in every 

 country of Europe, this was the fruit produced by the study of 

 your "Origin of Species," published in 1859, which first fur- 

 nished one vast basis for the theory of development. That 

 work, translated into Dutch by Dr. F, C, Winkler, now con- 

 servator of the Geological, Mineralogical, and Palseontological 

 collections in " P'eyler's Foundation " at Haarlem excited great 

 and general interest. It is true that a theory, striking so keenly 

 and so deep at the roots of existing opinions and prejudices, 

 could not be expected at once to meet with general approbation. 

 Many even amongst naturalists offered vehement opposition. 

 Prof. J. van der Hoeven, bred up as h.p was in the school of 

 Cuvier, endeavoured to administer an antidote for what he re- 

 garded as a baneful poison by translating into our tongue 

 Hopkins' well-known article in Fi-aser^s Magazine. However, 

 neither this production nor the professor's inluence over his 

 students could withstand the current, especially when, after his 

 death, the German zoologist, Prof. Emil Selenka, now Professor 

 of Zoology at Erlangen, was appointed at Leyden. A decided 

 advocate of your theory, he awakened in the younger zoologists a 

 lively enthusiasm, and founded a school in which the conviction 

 survives that the theory of development is the key to the explana- 

 tion of the History of Creation. 



In Utrecht, Prof Harting, with convictions more and more 

 decided, was busy in the same direction ; and Selenka's successor 

 in Leyden, Prof C. K. Hoffmann, did not remain in the rear. 

 Other names, among which are Groningen and Amsterdam pro- 

 fessors, might here be cited. By the translation of your " Descent 

 of Man" and "The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and 

 Animals," with copious explanatory notes and by various original 

 papers and translations treating on your theory, Dr, Plartogh 

 Heys van Zouteveen has also largely contributed to the more 

 general spread of your opinions in the Netherlands. 



To testify how generally they are held in esteem among the 

 yoimger zoologists and botanists, and more and more obtain 

 among professors of analogous branches in this country, we might 

 refer to a multitude of less important papers and articles in the 

 periodicals. 



This, however, we deem superfluous, since by offering for your 

 acceptance an album, containing the portraits of a number of 

 professional and amateur naturalists in the Netherlands, we offer 

 a convincing proof of our estimation of your indefatigable endea- 

 vours in the promotion of science and our admiration of you, Sir, 

 as the cynosure in this untrodden path. We recognise with 

 pleasure Dr, Hartogh Heys van Zouteveen as the primary mover 

 of such a demonstration of our homage. The execution, how- 

 ever, devolved upon the directors of the " Netherland Zoological 

 Society," who reasoned that, with the presentation of this unpre- 

 tending mark of esteem, a few words on the History of the 

 Theory of Development in the Netherlands would not be entirely 

 unacceptable, the more so, since this historic sketch clearly 

 shows that, albeit some ideas in that direction had already been 

 suggested here, yet to you alone reverts the honour of having 

 formed by your writings a school of zealous and convinced 

 partisans of the theory of development. 



Among the names in the accompanying list you will observe 

 several professors of Natural History, Anatomy, and Physiology 

 at the three Dutch Universities, the " Athenaeum Illustre " of 

 Amsterdam, and the Polytechnical Academy of Delft, the Con- 



