selves: do we actually live at the beginning- of the 20th 

 century? Is it possible, that even at this late day the whole 

 structure of scientific method is to be subverted in this 

 fashion? 



Just consider for a moment, what according to these 

 words is the actual import of the whole article: Darwin- 

 ism is a unifying explanation of the origin of the totality 

 of the world of organisms, but fails in the individual case; 

 in any specfied case it is "almost impossible" to trace with 

 any certainty the action of natural selection in the process 

 which results in the production of a new species; that is, 

 Darwinism was enunciated with a complete disregard for 

 inductive method, as an hypothesis to explain the whole, 

 and without actual proof in the concrete — a most unscien- 

 tific procedure. Immediately after, however, the adversa- 

 ries of Darwinism are asked in all seriousness to produce 

 individual facts in disproof of the theory. 



In the same strain Wagner goes on to say that "from 

 no point of view is our vision so penetrating as to be able 

 to grasp the coherence which according to Darwin per- 

 • vades the complex course of natural selection. When 

 men of science take occasion to repudiate Darwinism be- 

 cause of our inability to explain satisfactorily any particu- 

 lar case by means of the theory of selection, this inability 

 arises not from the theory of Darwin but from the inade- 

 quacy of our experience. For as yet the empiric prerequi- 

 sites for an objective judgment regarding the validity or 

 futility of the theory of selection are entirely lacking." 



101 



