PRESENT STATUS OF THE QUESTION 3 



quite another thing to devise a satisfactory explana- 

 tion of that fact. 



A few quotations from distinguished investigators, 

 who are representatives of different schools of 

 thought, will serve to show just what the most strik- 

 ing divergences of opinion are. Professor E. B. Wil- 

 son, in his address as President of the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science (1914), 

 says: "Biologists turned aside from general theories 

 of evolution and their deductive application to spe- 

 cial problems of descent, in order to take up objective 

 experiments on variation and heredity for their own 

 sake. This was not due to any doubts concerning the 

 reality of evolution or to any lack of interest in its 

 problems. It was a policy of masterly inactivity de- 

 liberately adopted; for further discussions concerning 

 the causes of evolution had clearly become futile until 

 a more adequate and critical view of existing genetic 

 phenomena had been attained' 9 [Italics mine.] 



Professor Gustav Steinmann, of Freiburg, who 

 occupies a very isolated position regarding the actual 

 lines of descent and relationship between the various 

 groups of plants and animals, and whose views on 

 these topics have been very severely criticised, has 

 no hesitation in declaring his unreserved acceptance 

 of the evolutionary theory. His words are: "The 

 theory of development, as it was revived by Darwin 

 nearly hah* a century ago, is in its modern form pre- 

 vailingly unhistorical. True, it has forced beneath 

 its sceptre the methods of investigation of all the 



