Page:The World's Most Famous Court Trial - 1925.djvu/180

176 have to use some of these long words—I have been trying all my life to use short words, and it is kind of hard to turn scientist for a moment.

(Laughter in the courtroom.)

And try to express myself in their language.

Here is the family tree of Darwin and remember that is the Darwin that is spoken of in Hunter's biology, that is Darwin he has raised. That is the Darwin who has series—

Mr. Malone—What is the book, Mr. Bryan?

Mr. Bryan—"The Descent of Man," by Charles Darwin.

Mr. Malone—That has not been offered as evidence?

Mr. Bryan—I should be glad to offer it.

Mr. Malone—No, no, no. No, no.

Mr. Bryan—Let me know if you want it, and it will go in.

Mr. Malone—I would be glad to have it go in.

(Laughter in the courtroom.)

Mr. Bryan—Let us have it put in now so that there will be no doubt about it.

Mr. Malone—If you will let us put our witnesses on to show what the works are—

Mr. Hays—If you will let us put evidence in about it, perhaps we can settle the questions of what it is. I would be satisfied.

Mr. Bryan—If you attach that condition to it, I may not be willing.

Mr. Hays—No.

Mr. Bryan—You seemed to be so anxious about Darwin, I thought you would be content.

Mr. Malone—I merely wanted to know whether it was a book offered by the prosecution; that was the purpose of my question.

Mr. Bryan—No. It was just referred to and Mr. Hays quoted from Linnaeus on the family tree. I will read this.

"The most ancient projenitorsprogenitors [sic] in the kingdom of the Vertebrata, at which we are able to obtain an obscure glance, apparently consisted of a group of marine animals, resembling the larvae of existing Ascidians. These animals probably gave rise to a group of fishes, as lowelylowly [sic] organized as the lancelet, and from these the Ganoids, and other fishes like the Lepidosiren must have been developed. From such fish a very small advance would carry us on to the amphibians. We have seen that birds and reptiles were once intimately connected together; and the Monotremata now connect mammals with reptiles in a slight degree. But no one can at present say by what line of descent the three higher and related classes, namely, mammals, birds and reptiles were derived from the two lower vertebrate classes, namely, amphibians and fishes. In the class of mammals the steps are not difficult to conceive which led from the ancient Monotremata to the ancient Marsupials, and from these to the early progenitors of the placental mammals. We may thus ascend to the Lemuridae, and the interval is not very wide from these to the Simiadae. The Simiadae then branched off into two great stems, the new world and the old world monkeys, and from the latter, at a remote period, man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded."

Not even from American monkeys, but from old world monkeys. (Laughter.) Now, here we have our glorious pedigree, and each child is expected to copy the family tree and take it home to his family to be submitted for the Bible family tree—that is what Darwin says. Now, my friends—I beg pardon, if the court please, I have been so in the habit of talknigtalking [sic] to an audience instead of a court, that I will sometimes say "my friends," although I happen to know not all of them are my friends. (Laughter.)

The Court—Let me ask you a question: Do you understand the evolution theory to involve the divine birth of divinity, or Christ's virgin birth, in any way or not?

Mr. Bryan—I am perfectly willing to answer the question. My contention is that the evolutionary hypothesis is not a theory, your honor.