HAECKEL AND THE NEW ZOOLOGY 



of zoological and anatomical knowledge, he constructed 

 a hypothetical tree of descent or, if you prefer, ascent 

 from the root in a protozoon to the topmost twig or 

 most recent offshoot, man. From that day till this 

 Haeckel's persistent labors have been directed towards 

 the perfection of that genealogical tree. 



This work on morphology was much too technical 

 to reach the general public, but in 1868 Haeckel pre- 

 pared, at the instigation of his friend and confrere 

 Gagenbaur, what was practically a popular abridg- 

 ment of the technical work, which was published under 

 the title of The Natural History of Creation. This work 

 created a furor at once. It has been translated into 

 a dozen languages, and has passed through nine edi- 

 tions in the original German. Through it the name of 

 Haeckel became almost a household word the world 

 over, and subject for mingled applause and opprobri- 

 um applause from the unprejudiced for its great 

 merit ; opprobrium from the bigoted because of the 

 unprecedented candor with which it followed the Dar- 

 winian hypothesis to its logical goal. 



The same complete candor of expression has marked 

 every stage of the unfolding of Professor Haeckel's 

 philosophical pronouncements. This fact is the more 

 remarkable because Professor Haeckel is, so far as I 

 am aware, the only scientist of our generation who has 

 felt at liberty to announce, absolutely without reserve, 

 the full conclusions to which his philosophy has car- 

 ried him, when these conclusions ran counter to the 

 prevalent prejudices of his time. Some one has said 

 that the German universities are oases of freedom. 

 The remark is absolutely true of Jena. It is not true, 



