ted with the most important principles
of the development-theory of the day, and therefore is incompetent to
judge it. Moreover, Virchow, as a politician, manifestly attributed
special importance to this political application of his paper, for he
gave it the title, which otherwise would have been hardly suitable, of
"The Freedom of Science in the Modern Polity." Unfortunately he forgot
to add to this title the two words in which the special tendency of
his discourse culminates; the two pregnant words, "must cease!"

The surprising disclosures in which Virchow denounces the doctrine of
evolution, and particularly the doctrine of descent, as socialist
theories and dangerous to the community, run as follows:--"Now,
picture to yourself the theory of descent as it already exists in the
brain of a socialist. Ay, gentlemen, it may seem laughable to many,
but it is in truth very serious, and I only hope that the theory of
descent may not entail on us all the horrors which similar theories
have actually brought upon neighbouring countries. At all times this
theory, if it is logically carried out to the end, has an uncommonly
suspicious aspect, and the fact that it has gained the sympathy of
socialism has not, it is to be hoped, escaped your notice. We must
make that quite clear to ourselves."

On reading this statement, which seems extracted from the Berlin
"Kreuz-Zeitung," or the Vienna "Vaterland," I ask myself in surprise,
"What in the world has the doctrine of descent to do with socialism?"
It has already been abundantly proved on many sides, and long since,
that these two theories are about as compatible as fire and water.
Oscar Schmidt might with justice retort, "If the socialists would
think clearly they would feel that they must do all they can to choke
the doctrine of descent, for it declares with express distinctness
that socialist ideas are impracticable." And he proceeds to add, "And
why has not Virchow made the gentle doctrines of Christianity
responsible for the excesses of socialism? That would have had some
sense. His denunciation flung so mysteriously and so confidently
before the great public, as though it concerned 'a sure and attested
scientific truth,' is, at the same time, so hollow that it cannot be
brought into harmony with the dignity of science."

With all these empty accusations, as with all the empty reproaches and
groundless objections which Virchow brings against the doctrine of
evolution, he tak