of
Descent, they will confess that the years between 1860 and 1880 were in
many respects a time of carnival; and the enthusiasm which at that time
took possession of the devotees of natural science will appear to them
as the excitement attending some mad revel.

A justification of our hope that Wigand's warning prediction will
finally be fulfilled is to be found in the fact that to-day the younger
generation of naturalists is departing more and more from Darwinism. It
is a fact worthy of special mention that the opposition to Darwinism
to-day comes chiefly from the ranks of the zoologists, whereas thirty
years ago large numbers of zoologists from Jena associated themselves
with the Darwinian school, hoping to find there a full and satisfactory
solution for the profoundest enigmas of natural science.

The cause of this reaction is not far to seek. There was at the time a
whole group of enthusiastic Darwinians among the university professors,
Haeckel leading the van, who clung to that theory so tenaciously and
were so zealous in propagating it, that for a while it seemed
impossible for a young naturalist to be anything but a Darwinian. Then
the inevitable reaction gradually set in. Darwin himself died, the
Darwinians of the sixties and seventies lost their pristine ardor, and
many even went beyond Darwin. Above all, calm reflection took the place
of excited enthusiasm. As a result it has become more and more apparent
that the past forty years have brought to light nothing new that is of
any value to the cause of Darwinism. This significant fact has aroused
doubts as to whether after all Darwinism can really give a satisfactory
explanation of the genesis of organic forms.

The rising generation is now discovering what discerning scholars had
already recognized and stated a quarter of a century ago. They are also
returning to a study of the older opponents of Darwinism, especially of
Wigand. It is only now, many years after his death, that a tribute has
been paid to this distinguished savant which unfortunately was
grudgingly withheld during his life. One day recently there was laid
before his monument in the Botanical Garden of Marburg a laurel-wreath
with the inscription: "To the great naturalist, philosopher and man."
It came from a young zoologist at Vienna who had thoroughly mastered
Wigand's great anti-Darwinian work, an intelligent investigator who had
set to work in the spirit of Wigand. Another talented zoologis