318 EVOLUTION, SOCIAL AND ORGANIC 



ism, at the Munich Congress, fell to Haeckel, 

 and on the i8th of September he threw down 

 the gage in a brilliant address in which he de- 

 fended the ideas of the great Englishman. 

 Haeckel also advocated the teaching of evolu- 

 tion in the schools. The battle raged back 

 and forth between the two armies, until 

 Virchow, the great pathologist, dropped a 

 bombshell in the Congress by boldly asserting : 

 "Darwinism leads directly to Socialism." 



Here biological arguments ceased. The only 

 thing in order was to clear the skirts of Dar- 

 winism of the terrible charge of being social- 

 istic. Of course this task fell to Haeckel, and 

 he was loyally assisted by Oscar Schmidt. 



Writing in "Ausland" two months later 

 Schmidt said: "If the Socialists were prudent 

 they would do their utmost to kill by silent 

 neglect, the theory of descent, for that theory 

 most emphatically proclaims that the Social- 

 ist ideas are impracticable." 



Haeckel replied to Virchow at some length, 

 and as that reply is rather difficult to obtain 

 I will give it here in full as quoted by Ferri, 

 and translated by Robert Rives La Monte: 



"As a matter of fact, there is no scientific 

 doctrine which proclaims more openly than 

 the theory of descent, that the equality of in- 

 dividuals, toward which Socialism tends, is an 



