THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



and impartial authorities on the science. In the course 

 of the forty-four years since it found its way into every 

 branch of biology, it has been employed in more than a 

 hundred large works and several thousand essays in ex- 

 plaining biological phenomena. This alone is enough 

 to show its profound importance. Hence it is mere 

 ignorance of the subject and its literature to say, as has 

 been done several times of late, that Darwinism is in 

 decay, or even "dead and buried." However, absurd 

 writings of this kind (such as Dennert's At the Death-bed 

 of Darwinism) have a certain" practical influence, be- 

 cause they fall in with the prevailing superstition in 

 theology and metaphysics. Unfortunately, they also 

 seem to obtain notice from the circumstance that a few 

 botanists persistentlly attack the Darwinian theory. 

 One of the most conspicuous of these is Hans Driesch, 

 who affirms that all Darwinists (and therefore the great 

 majority of modem biologists) have softening of the 

 brain, and that Darwinism is (like Hegel's philosophy) 

 the delusion of a generation. The arrogance of this con- 

 ceited writer is about equal to the obscurity of his bio- 

 logical opinions, the confusion of which is covered by a 

 series of most extravagant metaphysical speculations. 

 All these attacks have lately been met very ably by 

 Plate in his work, On the Significance of the Darwinian 

 Principle of Selection and the Problem of the Foundation 

 o/ 5^me5 (secdnd edition, 1903). The most thorough of , 

 recent defences of Darwinism is that made by August 

 Weismann in his Lectures on the Theory of Descent (1902) 

 and other works. But the distinguished zoologist goes 

 too far when he seeks to prove the omnipotence of 

 selection and wishes to ground it on an untenable molec- 

 ular hypothesis — the theory of germ-plasm, which we 

 will consider presently. Apart from these or other 

 exaggerations, we may say with Weismann that La- 

 marck's theory of descent received a sound causal basis 



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