DIVERGENCE 267 



did not originate with Darwin, incompatible with the 

 doctrine of Creation. In this conflict, Darwin took 

 little part, but was championed by Huxley, while 

 Bishop Wilberforce led the opposition. The battle was 

 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? Gradually the ranks broke and 

 scientists of distinction von Baer, von Kolliker, Vir- 

 chow, Nageli, Wigand, Hartmann, von Sachs, Eimer, 

 Delage, Haacke, Kassowitz, Cope, Haberlandt, Coethe, 

 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 



