16 THE HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY OF 



this assertion, for it is put forth by many other 

 and far more important authorities. I should like 

 to mention particularly Professor Oskar Hertwig, 

 who, in the last chapter of his excellent handbook 

 of comparative and experimental evolution, has 

 discussed, in a very clear and logical manner, the 

 evidence in favour of the theory of descent, which 

 has been hitherto adduced from comparative mor- 

 phology and evolution. He says : ' Evidence of 

 the monophyletic development of different races is 

 altogether wanting, and we are forced more and 

 more to accept the theory of development from a 

 variety of stocks.' 



Professor Boveri, who certainly was also quite 

 free from ' theological bias,' in his last presidential 

 address at the university of Wiirzburg, dealt with 

 the history of organisms. He too regards it as 

 impossible to trace back all the varieties of animals 

 to one primitive form. 



Von Wettstein among the botanists, and, more 

 particularly, Steinmann, Koken, and Diener among 

 the palaeontologists, have recently come forward 

 as champions of the theory of polyphyletic evolution, 

 consequently no one can charge me with upholding 

 it in my capacity as a ' theologian.' 1 I abide by my 

 conclusions, with just as much justification from 

 the zoological point of view, as do the above-named 

 eminent scientists, who, without being theologians 



1 See Diener's 'Palaeontology and the Doctrine of Evolution' in the 

 Austrian Rundschau^ xi., 1907, No. 3. 



