EVOLUTION BEFORE DARWIN 33 



had demonstrated in 1852, the necessity of adopting 

 the transmutation theory. By degrees, advanced 

 thinkers became convinced that a gradual transforma- 

 tion of all beings was really taking place ; it only re- 

 mained to ascertain by what process this transforma- 

 tion was being brought about. 



And still, in spite of scientific discoveries, such as 

 the discovery of the cell, in spite of the prodigious 

 advance made in certain sciences, for instance in em- 

 bryology, official teaching remained absolutely dom- 

 inated by the old ideas or rather by a spirit of hostility 

 to all general ideas. 



Weismann, who could observe de visu that condi- 

 tion of affairs, describes it as follows in his "Theory of 

 Evolution" : 



"It is impossible to estimate the effect of Darwin's 

 book on 'The Origin of Species,' unless we fully 

 realise how completely the biologists of that time had 

 turned away from general problems. I can only say 

 that we, who were then the younger men, studying in 

 the fifties, had no idea that a theory of evolution had 

 ever been put forward, for no one spoke of it to us, 

 and it was never mentioned in a lecture. It seemed 

 as if all the teachers in our universities had drunk of 

 the waters of Lethe, and had utterly forgotten that 

 such a theory had ever been discussed, or as if they 

 were ashamed of these philosophical flights on the 



