and without the aid of Darwinian principles. Haberlandt's article is
nothing less than a complete renunciation of Darwinism on the part of
Haberlandt, a renunciation which we greet with great satisfaction.

In fact one such observation would really suffice to set aside
Darwinism and prove the utter insufficiency of its principles to give
explanation of the origin of natural species. On the other hand, this
observation plainly proves two things: first, that the above mentioned
doctrine of Koelliker, now held by Korschinsky is a move in the right
direction for the discovery of the causes of descent; and secondly,
that the principal cause of the evolution is not to be sought in
environment and blind forces but in the systematically working,
internal vital principle in plants and animals. With that, however, an
important part of the foundation of the mechanical-materialistic view
of the world is demolished.

CHAPTER IV.

Since we have heard the verdict of zoologists and botanists concerning
Darwinism, it is but right that we should now listen to a
palaeontologist, a representative of the science, which investigates
the petrified records of the earth's surface, and strives to collect
information regarding the world of life during remote, by-gone ages of
the earth. It is evident to every-one that the verdict of this science
must be of very special importance in passing on the question of the
development of living organisms. Darwin himself recognized this at the
outset. He and his followers, however, soon perceived that, while the
revelations of palaeontology were on the whole favorable to the
doctrine of Descent, in so far as they proved the gradual change of
organization, in consecutive strata, from the simple to more complex
forms, palaeontology revealed nothing that would sustain the Darwinian
theory as to the method of that development. As soon as the Darwinians,
and first of all Darwin himself, perceived this, they at once brought
forward a very cheap subterfuge. Since Darwinism postulates a very
gradual, uninterrupted development of living organisms, there must have
been an immense number of transition-forms between any two animal or
plant species which to-day, although otherwise related, are separated
by characteristic features. Consequently, on the Darwinian hypothesis,
all of these transition-forms must have perished for the singular
reason that other better organized forms overcame them in the struggle