FIFTY YEARS OF DARWINISM 9 



continually assisted him by the most admirable 

 and original observations carried out at his Bra- 

 zilian home. Turning to those who in some im- 

 portant respects differed from Darwin, I do not 

 think a finer example of chivalrous controversy 

 can be found than that carried on between him 

 and Hyatt. The immense growth of evolution- 

 ary teaching, in which John Fiske played so im- 

 portant a part, although associated with the name 

 of Herbert Spencer, must not be neglected on 

 an occasion devoted to the memory of Darwin. 



Outside the conflict which raged around the 

 Origin^ we find Dana, the only naturaUst who at 

 first supported Darwin in his views on the per- 

 sistence of ocean basins and continental areas, and 

 Alexander Agassiz, for many years the principal 

 defender of the Darwinian theory of coral islands 

 and atolls. 



American paleontology, famed throughout the 

 world, has exercised a profound influence on the 

 growth and direction of evolutionary thought. 

 The scale and perfection of its splendid fossil 

 records have attracted the services of a large band 

 of the most eminent and successful laborers, of 

 whom I can only mention the leaders: — Leidy, 

 Cope, Marsh, Osborn, and Scott in the Ver- 

 tebrata; Hall, Hyatt, and Walcott in the Inver- 

 tebrate sub-ldngdom. The study of American 

 paleontology was at first beUeved to support a 

 Neo-Lamarckian view of evolution, but this, as 

 well as the hypothesis of polyphyletic origins, 



