342 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



a challenge which was made and successfully de- 

 fended in the first battle. Everybody knew all about 

 it and was interested in it. Some spoke for it; 

 others against it. It was considered the greatest 

 question of anthropology. 



" Let me remind you, however, at this point, that 

 natural science, so long as it remains such, works 

 only with real, existing objects. A hypothesis may 

 be discussed, but its significance can only be estab- 

 lished by producing actual proofs in its favor, either 

 by experiments or direct observations. This, Dar- 

 winism has not succeeded in doing. In vain have its 

 adherents sought for connecting links which should 

 connect man with the monkey. Not a single one 

 has been found. The so-called pro-anthropos, which 

 is supposed to represent this connecting link, has 

 not as yet appeared. No real scientist claims to have 

 seen him. Hence the pro-anthropos is not at present 

 an object of discussion for an anthropologist. Some 

 may be able to see him in their dreams, but when 

 awake they will not be able to say they have met 

 him. Even the hope of a future discovery of this 

 pro-anthropos is highly improbable ; for we are not 

 living in a dream, or in an ideal world, but in a real 

 one." 1 



1 See Smithsonian Report for 1889, pp. 563, et seq. In his 

 address before the International Archaeological Congress at 

 Moscow, in 1892, Prof. Virchow made the following declaration : 



" C'est en vain qu'on cherche le chainon, the missing link, 

 qui aurait uni 1'homme au singe ou a quelque autre espece ani- 

 male. 



"II existe une limite trancheequi separe Thomme de 1'ani- 

 mal et qu'on n'a pu jusqu' ici effacer ; c'est rhtrtdite qui trans- 

 met aux enfants les facultes des parents. Nous n'avons jamais 



