Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/584

 We leave this question to be answered by the "Independent." Having gone behind the returns and looked into the subject, it reports that, in Yale, Professors Marsh and Dana are pronounced evolutionists, and that what is true of these two men is true of Verrill, Brewer, Smith, and of all the other teachers of the biological sciences in Yale College; and it quotes Marsh as having said before the American Scientific Association: "It is now regarded among the active workers in science as a waste of time to discuss the truth of evolution. The battle on this point has been fought and won." As regards Princeton, the "Independent" says: "Dr. McCosh is quite outspoken in defense of the legitimacy of evolution, though not a Darwinian nor a naturalist. Professor Macloskie, their only naturalist, a man who has developed remarkably within a few years, is even more decided in the same direction, as are, without reserve, the distinguished Professors of Astronomy and Physics, Young and Brackett."

In respect to Brown University, we are told that "Professor A. S. Packard, Jr., is the only instructor in zoology or botany that we recall in Brown. He fully believes in evolution—man's physical structure no exception—and his published books support evolution through and through."

As to Amherst, "It is sufficient to state that the Professor of Geology in Amherst is an unreserved theistic evolutionist, who teaches the antiquity of the human race, and we have no doubt the same is true of his young colleague in natural history."

The "Independent" then presses the question as follows:

"Why did not the 'Observer' inquire of the President of Harvard College? Probably because he was afraid of the answer he would get. But did he not know that Harvard is one of those 'best schools,' having 'scientific authorities,' which we were talking about; and that Louis Agassiz, the great opponent of evolution, the most influential naturalist that ever lived in America, was a Harvard professor, while Asa Gray, the great American botanist, a champion of religion against materialism, and a devout member of an orthodox church, is another Harvard professor? But its omission was wise. Of all the younger brood of working naturalists whom Agassiz educated, every one—Morse, Shaler, Verrill, Niles, Hyatt, Scudder, Putnam, even his own son—has accepted evolution. Every one of the Harvard professors whose departments have to do with biology—Gray, Whitney, A. Agassiz, Hagen, Goodale, Shaler, James, Farlow, and Faxon—is an evolutionist, and man's physical structure they regard as no real exception to the law. They are all theists, we believe; all conservative men. They do not all believe that Darwinism—that is, natural selection—is a sufficient theory of evolution; they may incline to Wallace's view, but they accept evolution. It is not much taught; it is rather taken for granted. At Johns Hopkins University, which aims to be the most advanced in the country, nothing but evolution is held or taught. In the excellent University of Pennsylvania all the biological professors are evolutionists—Professors Leidy and Allen in comparative anatomy, Professor Rothrock in botany, and Professor Lesley in geology. We might mention Michigan University, Cornell, Dartmouth, Bowdoin; but what is the use of going further? It would only be the same story. There can scarcely an exception be found. Wherever there is a working naturalist, he is sure to be an evolutionist. We made inquiry of two ex-Presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. One wrote us, in reply, 'My impression is that there is no biologist of repute nowadays who does not accept, in some form or other, the doctrine of derivation in time, whatever be the precise form in which they suppose the