Deceiubkk 25, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



951 



very conservative in his views) added fuel to 

 the flames in an article on heredity ' which is 

 very explicit in this sense. ' At the same time 

 the radical uncompromising Vogt, when con. 

 fronted with what was called Haeckelism, for 

 once, and we helieve only once, in his life took a 

 conservative stand. The advanced views of 

 Haeckel, then the 'enfant terrible' of Darwinism, 

 with his genealogic tree of the whole animal king- 

 dom, where the vague hypotheses and assertions 

 ■of the Schopfunggeschichte and Anthropogenic 

 were treated as if generally received truths, 

 were too much even for Vogt. His mind, so 

 •well trained in ascertaining and observing facts 

 and in drawing safe deductions, though ac- 

 customed to give hypotheses due regard, led 

 him to believe also that the building of genea- 

 logical trees was too premature in the biological 

 science of that date. Vogt rebelled, and for a 

 while a coolness sprang up between the demi- 

 dieu cVJena and himself. Vogt also apparently 

 for the first time felt the influence of the uni- 

 versity spirit, and, unconsciously as regards ex- 

 treme evolutional views, the hair of this republi- 

 can and ultra radical in religion actually stood 

 on end, and his bold aggressive spirit became 

 reactionary and cautious. Vogt wrote in 1877, 

 under the title 'Apostel-, Propheten-undOrakel- 

 thum in der Wissenschaft, ' a sharp criticism 

 of Hackelismus ; in a moment of genuine in- 

 dignation, though with its comical side, pro- 

 nouncing the views of the Jena professor 

 as haarstraubend. The daring opinions of 

 Haeckel at that time not only excited the deri- 

 sion of laymen, but biologists of equal rank 

 with Vogt, among them Semper, were astonished 

 at the lengths to which Haeckel allowed his 

 vivid imagination to carry him, and yet at the 

 present day Haeckel' s views are moderate com- 

 pared with those of some biologists. In fact, 

 biology has shifted its methods, and a shoal of 

 hypotheses, some probable and others incapable 

 of proof, now occupy the field. 



It was the extreme views of Haeckel against 

 which Agassiz in the United States fought, 

 and though he was the leader of the anti-evo- 

 lution forces, he and Vogt stood on common 

 ground, i. e., of well ascertained facts, in op- 

 posing what they believed to be unsound scien- 

 tific methods. 



Vogt did not, however, like Fritz Miiller, 

 whose ' Fiir Darwin ' is a classical work, make 

 any notable contribution to the evolution theory, 

 though upholding the doctrine of descent in its 

 widest acceptation. He, however, did little to 

 broaden it, nor did he, so far as we know, take 

 up the questions now dividing evolutionists 

 into neo-Lamarckians and neo-Darwinians. The 

 scientific criticism of natural selection, the re- 

 vival and rehabilitation of Lamarckian views, 

 the rise of Weismannism and the search for 

 the physical base of heredity, are the products 

 of a later generation than that of Vogt. 



In the summer of 1861 Vogt went as one of 

 the guests of Dr. Berna to the North Cape and 

 Jan Mayen, visiting on the way the eminent 

 naturalist, Sars, and at Bergen Danielssen and 

 Koren, and by the succeeding year (1862) the 

 facile pen of Vogt had thrown off" his Nord- 

 Fahrt entlang der Norwegischen Kilste nach dem 

 Nordkap, den Inseln Jan Mayen und Island. 



In the rise of the young science of anthro- 

 pology, early in the sixties, due to the discov- 

 eries of Schmerling, of Boucher de Perthes, of 

 Christy and Lartet, in France ; of Thomsen, 

 Nilsson, Steenstrup, Foschhammer, Gabriel 

 de Mortillet, Capellini and others, with the 

 works of Huxley, of Lyell and Lubbock, and 

 the papers of Ecker, Vogt actively partici- 

 pated, and his lectures on man, which appeared 

 in 1863, was a notable work. Aggressive, 

 polemic, unlike the English and others, instead 

 of confining himself to the subject in hand, go- 

 ing out of his way to attack those who difiered 

 from him on theological and philosophic sub- 

 jects, the work made a great stir, perhaps more 

 than its merits really deserved. 



Vogt's opinion that microcephalous idiots are 

 cases of reversion to their ape ancestors fell 

 flat on the scientific ear, and indeed the fact 

 was that Vogt himself never saw more than 

 three perfect examples of undeniable micro- 

 cephals. But the German public was profoundly 

 moved by the popular lectures which the 

 author of Microcephales ou Hommes-singes de- 

 livered from 1867 to 1869, in the larger cities 

 of the German Confederation, in Hamburg, 

 Brussels, Antwerp, as well as Vienna and 

 Buda-Pesth. In the Catholic cities he was al- 

 most mobbed ; the children in the streets would 



