THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT, ETC. 89 



dangerous and objectionable character which, at the 

 present time, any political theory can have ; and these 

 startling denunciations so soon as they -were known 

 called forth such just indignation and such compre- 

 hensive refutation that I might very properly pass 

 them over here. Still we must at least shortly examine 

 them, in so far as they supply a further proof that 

 Virchow is unacquainted with the most important prin- 

 ciples of the development-theory of the day, and there- 

 fore is incompetent to judge it. Moreover, Virchow, as 

 a politician, manifestly attributed special importance 

 to this political application of his paper, for he gave it 

 the title, which otherwise would have been hardly 

 suitable, of " The Freedom of Science in the Modern 

 Polity." Unfortunately he forgot to add to this title 

 the two words in which the special tendency of his 

 discourse culminates ; the two pregnant words, " must 

 cease ! " 



The surprising disclosures in which Virchow de- 

 nounces the doctrine of evolution, and particularly the 

 doctrine of descent, as socialist theories and dangerous 

 to the community, run as follows : " Now, picture to 

 yourself the theory of descent as it already exists in 

 the brain of a socialist. Ay, gentlemen, it may seem 

 laughable to many, but it is in truth very serious, and 

 I only hope .that the theory of descent may not entail 

 on us all the horrors which similar theories have 



