PROFESSOR VIRCHOW AND EVOLUTION. 399 



ing fixed forms in which to mould it. On the threshold 

 of coming events stands the Prussian law of education. 

 In all the German States larger schools are being built, 

 new educational establishments are set up, the univer- 

 sities are extended, " higher " and " middle " schools are 

 founded. Finally comes the question, What is to be 

 the chief substance of the teaching ? ' What Virchow 

 thinks it ought and ought not to be, is disclosed by the 

 foregoing quotations. There ought to be a clear dis- 

 tinction made between science in the state of hypothesis, 

 and science in the state of fact. In school teaching 

 the former ought to be excluded. And, as he assumes 

 it to be still in its hypothetical stage, the ban of exclusion 

 ought, he thinks, to fall upon the theory of evolution. 



I now freely offer myself for judgment before the 

 tribunal whose law is here laid down. First and 

 foremost, then, I have never advocated the introduction 

 of the theory of evolution into our schools. I should 

 even be disposed to resist its introduction before its 

 meaning had been better understood and its utility 

 more fully recognised than it is now by the great 

 body of the community. The theory ought, I 

 think, to bide its time until the free conflict of dis- 

 covery, argument, and opinion has won for it this 

 recognition. A necessary condition here, however, is 

 that free discussion should not be prevented, either by 

 the ferocity of reviewers or the arm of the law ; other- 

 wise, as I said before, the work of social preparation 

 cannot go on. On this count, then, I claim ac- 

 quittal, being for the moment on the side of Virchow. 



Besides the duties of the chair, which I have been 

 privileged to occupy in London for more than a quarter 

 of a century, and which never involved a word on my 

 part, pro or con., in reference to the theory of evolu- 



