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C( When this confession was uttered before the assembled professors and 
other aiders and abettors of the Muses, a shudder seems to have passed 
through the august conclave. The meeting, being the 50th since the insti- 
tution of these annual assemblies, had a more solemn character than usually 
belongs to scientific gatherings. The extreme bias of the views expounded 
formed too marked a contrast to the lofty tone that pervaded the assembly 
to be ignored by the more moderate elements present. It was felt that, 
sceptically inclined as the nation and its learned professors might be, the 
majority were hardly disposed to adopt the materialist philosophy recom- 
mended to them as the only teaching consistent with the rational enlighten- 
ment of the times. It was perceived, too, that Herr Haeckel being too famous 
a man to be pushed aside, those of the audience who dissented had better 
announce their scruples, lest science should be led astray by the eccentricity 
of some and get into evil repute by the silence of others. It was one thing 
to tolerate and half approve the avowal of the like extravagant notions in 
ponderous volumes or scientific essays, comparatively removed from public 
ken ; it was another to allow them to pass uncontradicted at a representa- 
tive meeting, the observed of all observers. The bow had been too highly 
strung, and reaction was the consequence. 
“ Four days after the promulgation of Herr Haeckel’s views, Dr. Virchow, 
the celebrated professor of pathology at Berlin, ascended the speaker’s 
tribune to couch a protest against the sentiments enunciated by his learned 
friend. He began by reminding his hearers of past persecutions, with 
which he contrasted the liberty now allowed to every branch of science in 
Germany. Scholars, he went on, to render themselves worthy of the license 
given them in what they communicated to the world, should carefully 
distinguish between ascertained facts and the vast sea of conjecture, bor- 
dering upon the narrow strip of scientific terra Jirma. Facts should be 
taught ; conjecture, if communicated at all to those still studying the 
rudiments, should be mentioned as conjecture. Were a different method 
pursued, science would run the risk of being misled, and, moreover, might 
fall into disrepute and have its freedom curtailed by those in power. Now 
he contended that the production of the first organism out of inorganic 
matter had never been proved ; that the manner in which certain chymical 
elements were alleged to grow into a soul was incomprehensible to unpre- 
judiced investigators ; and that the connexion between monkey and man, 
let alone between crab and man, was unintelligible to those zoologists 
content to argue from what came under their observation. To elucidate 
these propositions, the learned professor imparted a variety of instructive 
details, strikingly grouped and wittily put, which those specially interested 
in the subject may read for themselves in his printed essay ‘ Die Freiheit 
der Wissenschaft.’ The conclusion he arrived at requires to be clearly 
stated. He said : — 
“ ‘ To be sure, if I do not believe in a Creator who breathed life into 
a clod of earth, I am compelled to assume the production of the organic 
