DIVERGENCE 295 



long and bitter, there was much acrimonious writing 

 on both sides, but the theory of descent the doctrine of 

 evolution was found to be invulnerable and at present 

 the theologians themselves have accepted it and even 

 make use of it in their own work. 



But as the years flew by the Darwinian doctrines 

 began to meet with assaults from the scientists them- 

 selves who having endeavored to prove their validity 

 began to find them inadequate to the requirements of 

 expanding knowledge. The question was asked, " What 

 is the origin of the. fittest?" Given the fittest, we easily 

 understand how it is perpetuated, but how does it arise? 

 Can the specific beginnings be found in the principle 

 of natural selection? It seems rather curious that Darwin's 

 own answer to this question seems to have been overlooked, 

 for he expressly states that it is to be found in the natural 

 small variations that obtain among species, which, if use- 

 ful, will tend to be preserved, if useless to be extinguished. 



Gradually the ranks broke and scientists of distinction 

 von Baer, von Kolliker, Virchow, Nageli, Wigand, Hart- 

 mann, von Sachs, Eimer, Delage, Haacke, Kassowitz, 

 Cope, Haberlandt, Goethe, Wolff, Driesch, Packard, 

 Morgan, Jaeckel, Steinmann, Korchinsky, and De Vries 

 broke away declaring that the origin of species was not 

 to be found in Darwinism, and returned to the teachings 

 of Lamarck, that inherited acquired characters formed 

 the inception of the specific differences (Neo-Lamarckism). 



This must not be interpreted, however, to mean that 

 Darwinism was dead. Indeed there was soon a Neo- 

 Darwinism revival with a goodly following, at the head 

 of which stood Weismann. 



Weismann's doctrine of the " inviolability of the 

 germplasm" as first expressed appeared to be opposed 

 to Darwin, for it argued that nothing could appear 

 in the offspring that was not already present in the 

 germ plasm, hence no condition to which an organism 

 was subjected could modify its descendants, see- 

 ing that the germ plasm from which they were to 



