Page:Carroll Lane Fenton - A History of Evolution (1922).djvu/60

 Rh evolution, and enjoyed the task of fighting for his beliefs, that Darwin achieved so early an almost complete victory over the scientists who opposed him. Of course, the triumph was not all-embracing; there are still a few people who follow the natural sciences and yet refuse to believe that one species can arise, either by natural selection or by some other means, from another species without the interference of a deity. And the public at large, particularly that portion of it which lives far away from museums, zoological gardens, and centers where illustrated talks on natural science are regularly given, still believes in the theory of special creation. But that belief neither signifies defeat for Darwin and his followers, nor casts doubt upon the essential truth of their ideas; it simply means that he theory of evolution is still relatively young, and that popular education is in its infancy.

The period between 1860 and 1900 was occupied largely by elaborations of the Darwinian conception of evolution, and arguments as to whether or not organic descent was a fact. In those four decades there were many famous workers—Alfred Russell Wallace, co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of selection; Weismann and Haeckel, Germany's