A still more reprehensible position is assumed by Dr. Reh, who censures Fleischmann for introducing to the general public the question of Descent which belongs properly to the forum of science. He claims that Fleischmann, by so doing, forfeited his right to an unbiased hearing. Dr. Reh forgets that but a short time ago he had no word of censure for Haeckel's _Weltraetsel_ which was intended for a far wider circle of readers. He next appropriates Haeckel's suspicion regarding Fleischmann which we noticed above, and then adds the entirely untrue assertion that the first half of Fleischmann's Manual, written before he took possession of the chair in Erlangen, is written in the spirit of Darwin, whereas the second half which appeared at a later date is written in the contrary spirit. He then takes individual points of Fleischmann's treatise out of their context in order to execute a cheap and nonsensical criticism of them. Haeckel has evidently been giving instructions on the best manner of dealing with adversaries. And very docile disciples they are who imitate his method even to the extent of defaming and abusing their scientific opponents. But is not this another plain indication of the decay of Darwinism? Of course Haeckel recognized at the very beginning of his career that it was necessary to support the theory by means of personal bitterness, forgeries and misrepresentations. But if the last surviving advocates of Darwinism must needs have recourse to the same disreputable means, to what a low estate, indeed, has it fallen! Let us hope that these last wild convulsions are really the signs of approaching dissolution. CHAPTER X. In order to judge of the present status of Darwinism it is of primary importance to note the position assumed by the few really eminent investigators, who as pupils of Haeckel still seem to have remained true to him. Among these I reckon Oskar Hertwig, the well known Berlin anatomist. As early as 1899 in an address at the University on, _Die Lehre vom Organismus und ihre Beziehung zur Sozialwissenschaft_, Hertwig gave expression to views which are very little in harmony with the doctrines proceeding from Jena, and which are also put forth in his manual, _The Cell and the Tissue_. In that address we read (p. 8): "With the same right, with which, for the good of scientific progress, an energetic protest has been raised against a certain mysticism which attaches to the word Vitality, I beg to give warning against an opposite extreme which is but too apt to lead to onesided and unreal, and hence also, ultimately to false notions of the vital process, against an extreme which would see in the vital process nothing but a chemico-physical and mechanical problem and thinks to arrive at true scientific knowledge only in so far as it succeeds in tracing back phenomena to the movements of repelling and attracting atoms and in subjecting them to mathematical calculation."