60 THE GERM-PLASM THEORY 



a singular fact, for example, that one of the most 

 prominent morphologists of the day should, in the 

 preface to one of his works, " ask for a lenient 

 judgment if in some pages of this work I have 

 seemed to take up an unduly critical position with 

 regard to views widely prevalent at the present 

 time on some aspects of organic evolution ! " 

 Surely the more a scientific theory is criticized 

 and sifted the better. But the dogma, for the time 

 being, is sacred, so sacred that it is sometimes used 

 to prove itself ; that is to say, facts which might 

 prove or disprove it are claimed as interpretable 

 only in one way, because in any other way they 

 would conflict with the dogma in question. More- 

 over, those who venture to doubt are discounted 

 in some subtle manner. " The truth should now 

 be frankly stated, that, as in the case of Cuvier 

 and Owen, Professor Virchow's vast knowledge 

 and range of thought have been somewhat neutral- 

 ized by his excessive conservatism,"* says Professor 

 Keane in explanation of the fact that Virchow, 

 one of the giants of biological science, was not 

 prepared to accept all the theories put forward 

 by recent anthropologists. Haeckel assures us that 

 " deep emotional disturbance, painful experience 

 and exuberant [hope " had " clouded the judg- 

 ment " of ^Romanes, and 'Ipr evented him from 

 accepting the views of the author of The Riddle 

 of ike Universe. Or, finally, a man of science of the 

 eminence of Lord Kelvin is told that he " speaks 

 without authority " if he ventures on a philo- 

 sophical statement, some of the underlying facts 



* Ethnology^ Cambridge, 1896, p. 144. 



