xxvi PREFA CE. 



Prussian diet as the highest practical authority, and at 

 the same time as the most liberal critic when educa- 

 tional questions are under consideration. Now it is 

 well known that one of the most important problems 

 lying before the Prussian parliament is the consider- 

 ation of a new education-law, which will probably 

 exercise its restricting influence for a long time to 

 come, not in Prussia only, but throughout Germany ; 

 what can we expect of such an education-law if in the 

 course of the deliberations, among the small number 

 of those specialists who are generally listened to, 

 Virchow raises his voice as a leading authority, antl 

 brings forward the principles that he proclaimed in his 

 speech at Munich as the surest guarantees for the 

 freedom of science in the modern polity ? Article XX. 

 of the Prussian Charter, and I 5 2 of the Code of the 

 German Empire, say, " Science and its doctrines are 

 free." And Virchow's first step, according to the prin- 

 ciples he now declares, must be a motion to abrogate 

 this paragraph. 



In the face of this imminent danger, I dare no 

 longer hesitate about my answer. Atnicus Socrates, 

 amicus Plato, magis arnica Veritas. An unreserved 

 and public opposition can be no longer postponed. 

 As a matter of fact, at the Munich meeting, neither did 

 Virchow hear my speech nor I his. I read my paper, 

 as it is printed, on the i8th September 1877, and left 



