At the Deathbed of Darwinism

the Deathbed of Darwinism, by
Eberhard Dennert

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Title: At the Deathbed of Darwinism A Series of Papers
Author: Eberhard Dennert
Translator: Edwin V. O'Harra John H. Peschges
Release Date: April 10, 2007 [EBook #21019]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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AT THE DEATHBED OF DARWINISM

A SERIES OF PAPERS
By
E. DENNERT, Ph.D.

Authorized Translation
By E. V. O'HARRA and JOHN H. PESCHGES

1904 GERMAN LITERARY BOARD Burlington, Iowa
Copyright 1904 By R. NEUMANN

CONTENTS
PREFACE 9
INTRODUCTION 27
CHAPTER I.
--The Return to Wigand--The Botanist, Julius von Sachs--The Vienna
Zoologist, Dr. Schneider 35
CHAPTER II.
--Professor Goethe on "The Present Status of Darwinism"--Explains the
Reluctance of certain men of Science to Discard Darwinism 41
CHAPTER III.
--Professor Korchinsky Rejects Darwinism--His Theory of

Heterogenesis--Professor Haberlandt of Graz--Demonstration of a
"Vital Force"--Its Nature--The Sudden Origination of a New
Organ--Importance of the Experiment. 49
CHAPTER IV.
--Testimony of a Palaeontologist, Professor Steinmann--On Haeckel's
Family Trees--The Principle of Multiple Origin--Extinction of the
Saurians--"Darwinism Not the Alpha and Omega of the Doctrine of
Descent"--Steinmann's Conclusions 60
CHAPTER V.
--Eimer's Theory of Organic Growth--Definite Lines of
Development--Rejects Darwin's Theory of Fluctuating
Variations--Opposes Weismann--Repudiates Darwinian
"Mimicry"--Discards the "Romantic" Hypothesis of Sexual
Selection--"Transmutation is a Physiological Process, a Phyletic
Growth" 69
CHAPTER VI.
--Admissions of a Darwinian--Professor von Wagner's Explanation of
the Decay of Darwinism--Darwinism Rejects the Inductive Method,
Hence Unscientific--Wagner's Contradictory Assertions 90
CHAPTER VII.
--Haeckel's Latest Production--His Extreme Modesty--Reception of the
Weltraetsel--Schmidt's Apologia--The Romanes Incident--Men of
Science Who Convicted Haeckel of Deliberate Fraud 104
CHAPTER VIII.
--Grottewitz Writes on "Darwinian Myths"--Darwinism Incapable of
Scientific Proof--"The Principle of Gradual Development Certainly
Untenable"--"Darwin's Theory of "Chance" a Myth" 118

CHAPTER IX.
--Professor Fleischmann of Erlangen--Doctrine of Descent Not
Substantiated--Missing Links--"Collapse of Haeckel's
Theory"--Descent Hypothesis "Antiquated"--Fleischmann Formerly a
Darwinian--Haeckel's Disreputable Methods of Defense 124
CHAPTER X.
--Hertwig, the Berlin Anatomist, Protests Against the Materialistic
View of Life"--No Empiric Proof of Darwinism--"The Impotence of
Natural Selection"--Rejects Haeckel's "Biogenetic Law" 137
CONCLUSION.--Darwinism Abandoned by Men of
Science--Supplanted by a Theory in Harmony With Theistic Principles
146

PREFACE.
The general tendency of recent scientific literature dealing with the
problem of organic evolution may fairly be characterized as distinctly
and prevailingly unfavorable to the Darwinian theory of Natural
Selection. In the series of chapters herewith offered for the first time to
English readers, Dr. Dennert has brought together testimonies which
leave no room for doubt about the decadence of the Darwinian theory
in the highest scientific circles in Germany. And outside of Germany
the same sentiment is shared generally by the leaders of scientific
thought. That the popularizers of evolutionary conceptions have any
anti-Darwinian tendencies cannot, of course, be for a moment
maintained. For who would undertake to popularize what is not novel
or striking? But a study of the best scientific literature reveals the fact
that the attitude assumed by one of our foremost American zoologists,
Professor Thomas Hunt Morgan, in his recent work on "Evolution and
Adaptation," is far more general among the leading men of science than
is popularly supposed. Professor Morgan's position may be stated thus:
He adheres to the general theory of Descent, i.e., he believes the

simplest explanation which has yet been offered of the structural
similarities between species within the same group, is the hypothesis of
a common descent from a parent species. But he emphatically rejects
the notion--and this is the quintessence of Darwinism--that the
dissimilarities between species have been brought about by the purely
mechanical agency of natural selection.
To find out what, precisely, Darwin meant by the term "natural
selection" let us turn for a moment, to his great work, The Origin of
Species by Means of Natural Selection. In the second chapter of that
work, Darwin observes that small "fortuitous" variations in individual
organisms, though of small interest to the systematist, are of the
"highest importance" for his theory, since these minute variations often
confer on the possessor of them, some advantage over his fellows in the
quest for the necessaries of life. Thus these chance individual variations
become the "first steps" towards slight varieties, which, in turn, lead to
sub-species, and, finally, to species. Varieties, in fact, are "incipient
species." Hence, small "fortuitous" fluctuating, individual
variations--i.e., those which chance to occur without predetermined
direction--are the "first-steps" in the origin of species. This is the first
element