n attitude of hostility to
him from the very beginning of the controversy in 1860. _The Descent
of Man_ was not merely rejected, but even the discussion of it was
forbidden on the ground that it was "unscientific."

The centre of this inveterate hostility for thirty years--especially
after 1877--was Rudolph Virchow of Berlin, the leading investigator
in pathological anatomy, who did so much for the reform of medicine by
his establishment of cellular pathology in 1858. As a prominent
representative of "exact" or "descriptive" anthropology, and lacking a
broad equipment in comparative anatomy and ontogeny, he was unable to
accept the theory of descent. In earlier years, and especially during
his splendid period of activity at Wuerzburg (1848-1856), he had been a
consistent free-thinker, and had in a number of able articles
(collected in his _Gesammelte Abhandlungen_)[141] upheld the unity of
human nature, the inseparability of body and spirit. In later years at
Berlin, where he was more occupied with political work and sociology
(especially after 1866), he abandoned the positive monistic position
for one of agnosticism and scepticism, and made concessions to the
dualistic dogma of a spiritual world apart from the material frame.

In the course of a Scientific Congress at Munich in 1877 the conflict
of these antithetic views of nature came into sharp relief. At this
memorable Congress I had undertaken to deliver the first address
(September 18th) on the subject of "Modern evolution in relation to
the whole of science." I maintained that Darwin's theory not only
solved the great problem of the origin of species, but that its
implications, especially in regard to the nature of man, threw
considerable light on the whole of science, and on anthropology in
particular. The discovery of the real origin of man by evolution from
a long series of mammal ancestors threw light on his place in nature
in every respect, as Huxley had already shown in his excellent
lectures of 1863. Just as all the organs and tissues of the human body
had originated from those of the nearest related mammals, certain
ape-like forms, so we were bound to conclude that his mental qualities
also had been derived from those of his extinct primate ancestor.

This monistic view of the origin and nature of man, which is now admitted
by nearly all who have the requisite acquaintance with biology, and
approach the subject without prejudice, encountered a sharp opp