ORGANIC EVOLUTION 347 
over the evolution-theory, and that it was beginning to sur- 
render it. Such statements are misleading and tend to per- 
petuate the confusion regarding its present status. Further- 
more, the matter as set forth in writings like the. grotesque 
little book, At the Deathbed of Darwinism tends to becloud 
rather than to clear the atmosphere. 
The theory of organic evolution relates to the history of 
animal and plant life, while Darwin’s theory of natural selec- 
tion is only one of the various attempts to point out the 
causes for that history’s being what it is. An attack upon 
Darwinism is not, in itself, an attack upon the general the- 
ory, but upon the adequacy of his explanation of the way 
in which nature has brought about the diversity of animal 
and plant life. Natural selection is the particular factor 
which Darwin has emphasized, and the discussion of the 
part played by other factors tends only to extend the knowl- 
edge of the evolutionary process, without detracting from it 
as a general theory. 
While the controversies among scientific men relate for 
the most part to the influences that have been operative in 
bringing about organic evolution, nevertheless there are a few 
in the scientific camp who repudiate the doctrine. Fleisch- 
mann, of Erlangen, is perhaps the most conspicuous of those 
who are directing criticism against the general doctrine, 
maintaining that it is untenable. Working biologists will be 
the first to admit that it is not demonstrated by indubitable 
evidence, but the weight of evidence is so compelling that 
scientific men as a body regard the doctrine of organic evolu- 
tion as merely expressing a fact of nature, and we can not 
in truth speak of any considerable opposition to it. Since 
Fleischmann speaks as an anatomist, his suppression of 
anatomical facts with which he is acquainted and his form of 
special pleading have impressed the biological world as lack- 
ing in sincerity. 
