IGNORABIMUS ET RESTRINGAMUR. 119 



progress of free inquiry, neither will Virchow succeed 

 in turning back the course of Darwin's admirable 

 achievement ; no, not even when he is supported by 

 the discourses of his friend Bastian. 



While we cannot but earnestly lament Virchow's ini- 

 mical attitude in this great struggle for truth, we must 

 not overlook the effects of his well-founded authority in 

 a yet wider sphere. For instance, the hostile attitude 

 which the greater part of the Berlin press persistently 

 maintains towards the doctrine of development (parti- 

 cularly the Liberal "National-Zeitung") is to be referred 

 to the influence of his authority. But much as this 

 reactionary vein, in this and in other intelligent circles 

 at Berlin, must be regretted on the one hand, on the other 

 we must observe that by this evil we have been pre- 

 served from a far greater one. This greater evil the 

 greatest, in fact, which German science could have to 

 encounter would be the monopoly of knowledge at 

 Berlin ; a Centralisation of Science. The injurious fruits 

 of this system of centralisation in France, for instance, 

 the continual deterioration of French science through 

 the Parisian " Monopoly of Knowledge," and its steady 

 decline during half a century from the sublimest 

 heights these are all well known. From such a 

 centralisation of German science which would be 

 especially dangerous if it occurred in the capital, 



