DARWINISM TO-DAY. 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY: THE "DEATH-BED OF 

 DARWINISM." 



"VoM STERBELAGER DES DARWINISMUS !" This is the 

 title of a recent pamphlet 1 lying before me. But ever since 

 there has been Darwinism there have been occasional death- 

 beds of Darwinism on title pages of pamphlets, addresses, 

 and sermons. Much more worth consideration than any 

 clerical pamphlets or dissertations, under this title, by frisch- 

 gebackenen German doctors of philosophy the title alone 

 proving prejudice or lack of judgment or of knowledge 

 are the numerous books and papers which, with less sensa- 

 tional headlines but infinitely more important contents, are 

 appearing now in such numbers and from such a variety of 

 reputable sources as to reveal the existence among biologists 

 and philosophers of a widespread belief in the marked 

 weakening, at least, if not serious indisposition, of Darwin- 

 ism. A few of these books and papers from scientific sources 

 even suggest that their writers see shadows of a death-bed. 

 The present extraordinary activity in biology is two- 

 phased ; there is going on a most careful re-examination or 

 Modem activ- scrutmv f the theories connected with organic 

 ity in biologic evolution, resulting in much destructive criti- 

 cism of certain long-cherished and widely held 

 beliefs, and at the same time there are being developed and 

 almost feverishly driven forward certain fascinating and 

 fundamentally important new lines, employing new methods, 



