intention that he worked during the last years of his life 

 and it is to be hoped that his school will continue his 

 researches with this aim in view. 



The tendency among naturalists to return to Wigand is 

 v/ell exemplified in an article contributed to the "Preussi- 

 schen Jahrbuecher" for January, 1897, by Dr. Karl Camillo 

 Schneider, assistant at the zoological Institute of the Uni- 

 versity of Vienna. This article which is entitled The Origin 

 of Species, pursues Wigand's train of thought throughout, 

 and whole sentences and even paragraphs are taken ver- 

 batim from his main work. This, at all events, is a very 

 instructive indication of the present tendency which de- 

 serves prominence: and its significance becomes more 

 evident when we recall how the work of Wigand was re- 

 ceived by the non-christian press a quarter of a century 

 ago. It was either ridiculed or ignored. The two methods 

 of treatment were applied to his writings which are always 

 readily employed when the critic has nothing pertinent to 

 say. It is interesting to note that Darwin himself employed 

 this method. Wigand once told me that he had sent Dar- 

 win a copy of his work and had addressed a letter to him 

 at the same time merely stating that he had sent the book, 

 making no reference to the line of thought contained in it. 

 Darwin answered immediately in the kindest manner that 

 he had not as yet received the book, but when it arrived 

 he would at once make a careful study of its contents. Dar- 

 win did not write to him again, and when a new edition of 

 his works appeared, the work of Wigand, the most com- 

 prehensive answer to Darwin ever written, was passed over 



39 



