NEW BIOLOGICAL BOOKS 



42-9 



order of magnitude as Dr. Williams' more 

 pious ones. A calculating astronomer 

 practicing his own trade would regard it, 

 all things considered, as about equivalent 

 to close agreement. 



Let us now return to the reverend 

 gentleman's arithmetic, which we person- 

 ally believe to have been inspired by the 

 Prince of Darkness and not by God, as 

 Dr. Williams thinks: 



Now the evolutionists claim that the human race 

 is 1,000,000 years old. There is no good reason for 

 believing that, during all these years the developing 

 dominant species would not increase as rapidly as the 

 Jews, or the human race in historic times, especially 

 since the restraints of civilization and marriage did 

 not exist. But let us generously suppose that these 

 remote ancestors, beginning with one pair, doubled 

 their numbers in 1611.51 years, one-tenth as rapidly 

 as the Jews, or 1140 times in 1,000,000 years. 

 If we raise 1 to the 1140th power, the result is 

 18,931,139,737,991 with '360 figures following. The 

 population of the world therefore, would have been 

 18,931,139,737,991 decillion, decillion, decillion, 

 decillion, decillion, decillion, decillion, decillion, 

 decillion, decillion; or 18,931,139,737,991 vigintil- 

 lion, vigintillion, vigintillion, vigintillion, vigintil- 

 lion, vigintillion. 



Or, let us suppose that man, the dominant species, 

 originated from a single pair, only 100,000 years ago, 

 the shortest period suggested by any evolutionist 

 (and much too short for evolution) and that the 

 population doubled in 1611.51 years, one-tenth the 

 Jewish rate of net increase, a most generous estimate. 

 The present population of the globe should be 

 4,660,110,153,138,104,300 or 1,517,570,733 for every 

 man, woman and child! 



This is intended by Dr. Williams to 

 make the evolutionist stop and think. 

 But he has still more heavy artillery. 

 What of this : 



Now, if there had been no flood to destroy the 

 human race, then the descendants of Adam, in the 

 7333 years, would have been 16,384 times the 

 1,804,187,000, or 19,559,799,808,000; or computed 

 at the Jewish rate of net increase for 7333 years since 

 Adam, the population would have been still greater, 

 or 35,184,371,088,831. These calculations are in 

 perfect accord with the Scripture story of the special 



creation of man, and the destruction of the race by a 

 flood. Had it not been for the flood, the earth could 

 not have sustained the descendants of Adam. Is not 

 this a demonstration, decisive and final? 



Here we stop. There is a great deal 

 more that might be said about this book, 

 but all that we care to do in this review is 

 to expose the Reverend Doctor's technique 

 in the hope that it will whet the reader's 

 appetite. He has corresponded with a 

 good many of the doughtiest Anti- 

 fundamentalist warriors and the quota- 

 tions he prints from their letters make 

 highly amusing reading. Why do people 

 write silly answers to idiotic letters? 



We want to close this review with a 

 serious word. The numerical conse- 

 quences of any theory of organic evolution, 

 in respect of practically any particular 

 whatever, have never been seriously or 

 exhaustively studied by a competent 

 mathematician. Such exceptions to this 

 statement as are furnished by the work of 

 Karl Pearson and J. B. S. Haldane, and a 

 few others, fine as they are within their 

 limitations, are trivial in comparison with 

 the vastness of the problem really in- 

 volved. Until adequate research along 

 these lines has proceeded much farther 

 than it has now, and until many more 

 biologists are able than now are to com- 

 prehend what the problem really means, 

 and to read intelligently contributions 

 towards its solution, it is to be expected 

 that we shall be confronted from time to 

 time with theological arithmetic of the 

 sort assembled in this book. But, in our 

 humble opinion, it will be poor tactics 

 on the part of scientific men to attempt to 

 meet such cases by calling the authors 

 names, or by brushing the matter lightly 

 aside as misguided nonsense. For the 

 truth is that any theory of evolution 

 does have necessary numerical consequences, 

 and until we know better than we now 

 do just what these are for any- particular 



