umerous and most extraordinary difficulties
that arise in the way of the empiric investigation of the theory of
selection."

After we have read all this, we instinctively ask ourselves: do we
actually live at the beginning of the 20th century? Is it possible,
that even at this late day the whole structure of scientific method is
to be subverted in this fashion?

Just consider for a moment, what according to these words is the actual
import of the whole article: Darwinism is a unifying explanation of the
origin of the totality of the world of organisms, but fails in the
individual case; in any specified case it is "almost impossible" to
trace with any certainty the action of natural selection in the process
which results in the production of a new species; that is, Darwinism
was enunciated with a complete disregard for inductive method, as an
hypothesis to explain the whole, and without actual proof in the
concrete--a most unscientific procedure. Immediately after, however,
the adversaries of Darwinism are asked in all seriousness to produce
individual facts in disproof of the theory.

In the same strain Wagner goes on to say that "from no point of view is
our vision so penetrating as to be able to grasp the coherence which
according to Darwin pervades the complex course of natural selection.
When men of science take occasion to repudiate Darwinism because of our
inability to explain satisfactorily any particular case by means of the
theory of selection, this inability arises not from the theory of
Darwin but from the inadequacy of our experience. For as yet the
empiric prerequisites for an objective judgment regarding the validity
or futility of the theory of selection are entirely lacking." Every
naturalist who believes in the inductive method must needs draw the
conclusion from these naive admissions, that, as Darwinism lacks the
empiric prerequisites, it should be discarded. Moreover, the demand is
made in all seriousness, that, in order to refute Darwinism which has
not as yet been established empirically, empiric proofs should be
forthcoming.

To my mind, the scientific and logical bankruptcy of Darwinism was
never announced more bluntly and ingenuously. Furthermore it must be
remarked that Wagner's statement, regarding "fictitious cases," is not
even pertinent. He seems to have no idea of the observations and
experiments of Sachs, Haberlandt, Eimer, and a host of other
investigators. The disproof of Darwinism