6 DEVELOPMENT AND CREATION. 



import of the doctrine of descent or of transformation, 

 for the latter is as yet the only theory -which ration- 

 ally explains the origin of species. If we discard it, 

 nothing remains but the irrational assumption of a 

 miracle, a supernatural creation. 



In this crucial and unavoidable dilemma, Virchow has 

 declared himself publicly in favour of the latter, and 

 against the former hypothesis. Every one who has 

 attentively followed his occasional utterances on the 

 theory of descent during the last decade with an unpreju- 

 diced eye and an unbiassed judgment, must be convinced 

 that he fundamentally rejects it. Still, his dissent has 

 always been so obscured, and his judgment on Darwin- 

 ism in particular so wrapped in ambiguities, that an 

 opportune conversion to the opposite side seemed not 

 impossible ; and many, even among those who stood 

 near to Virchow his friends and disciples did not 

 know to what point he was in fact an opponent 

 of the evolution hypothesis in general. Virchow took 

 the last step towards clearing up this matter at 

 Munich ; for after his Munich address there can be- 

 no farther doubt that he belongs to the most decided 

 opponents of the whole theory of evolution, including 

 those of inheritance and selection. 



If any one still has doubts on the matter, let him 

 read the jubilant hymns of triumph with which 

 Virchow's friend and collaborator, Adolf Bastian, 



