on, on many
sides, to prepare a reply. And such a reply on my part seemed, in
fact, justified by the severe strictures which Virchow in his
discourse had directed against one delivered by me only four days
previously, before the same meeting, on "The Modern Doctrine of
Evolution in its Relation to General Science." The general views which
Virchow then unfolded proved such a fundamental opposition in our
principles, and touched our dearest moral convictions so nearly, that
any reconciliation of such antagonistic views was no longer to be
thought of. Nevertheless I forbore publishing the ready reply for two
reasons: one relating to the matter itself, the other a personal one.

With regard to the matter itself, I believed I might confidently leave
it to futurity to decide in the contention that has declared itself
between us. For on one hand the doctrine of evolution which Virchow
attacks has already so far become a sure basis of biological science
and part of the most precious mental-stock of cultivated humanity,
that neither the anathemas of the Church nor the contradiction of the
greatest scientific authority--and such an one is Virchow--can prevail
against it; and on the other hand most of the arguments which he
specially adduces against the theory of descent have been so often
discussed and so thoroughly refuted that any renewed discussion seems
in fact superfluous.

Personally, it was in the highest degree repugnant to me to come
forward as the opponent of a man whom I learned, a quarter of a
century ago, to acknowledge and to honour as the reformer of medical
science; a man whose most ardent disciple and most enthusiastic
follower I at that time was, with whom I subsequently stood in the
closest relation as his assistant, and with whom I long after
continued in the most friendly intercourse. The more keenly I lamented
Virchow's position, for some years past, as the antagonist of our
modern doctrine of evolution, and the more I felt myself challenged to
a reply by his repeated attacks upon it, the less inclination I felt,
nevertheless, to come forward publicly as the opponent of this
distinguished and highly-honoured man.

And if I find myself, after all, forced to reply, it is in the
persuasion that a longer silence will add to the erroneous conclusions
which my hitherto resigned attitude has already given rise to; at the
same time I believe that, precisely by reason of the peculiar interest
with which I have th