Evolution journal V06

/ ^ y x.y /;, > ^ ^ -F —— ^ Entered as second class matter X Ne w York N Y Jan 192J" I (i.volutioii Piibl Corp., yij-5th Ave., N.Y Monthlv One Dollar |i.-i v.mp ' / r ^£_ ^_ ^ J "^ \ -7 / ^ r x- / CHRYSALIS Ciiiirli: ) By (AltL AKICLKV ^y iniliiriaii T~7- ^ W'lM Side (.hiirrh .\ / ^ / / Edwin Tenney Brewster, Allan Strong Broms, George Dorsey, Alexander Goldenweiser, Joseph McCabe, Albert Duy McNair, Hugh F Munro, Maynard Shipley, Cleveland Sylvester Simkins, Henshaw Ward, Horace Elmer Wood II Articles by: y/ EVOLUTION Page Two July, 1928 Spencer and the Synthetic Philosophy Br Alexander Goldenweiser a sense Herbert Spencer rather than IN Darwin should Under be regarded as the father of Evolution the sweep of his integrating intellect, the hypothesis of evolutionary development reached a comprehensiveness and a logical rigor which no one else either before or after Spencer was able to transcend or equal Brought up in a nonconformist family and possessed of an independent temperament, little Herbert, He other eminent persons, was a bad boy did pretty much as he liked, studied what he chose, and many like neglected what he abhorred we find that in his "First Principles," Spencer enunci- ated evolution as a universal process manifesting itself phenomena of inanimate matter, life, mind and determined the scope of the synthetic philosophy which comprised the "Principles" of Biolin the society This ogy, Psychology, Sociology, and Ethics treatment in the "First Principles." Spencer's "Biology" con- two important princi- indiffer- tains ent student, except in sub- ples: Always he was an it was, fitted him Individuation va- propagation, or the more an organism does for the race, the less is it able to for itself; and Acquired char- appealed to him His early training, such ries inversely with jects that as Unfortunately, volumes which were to deal with cosmology and geology remained unwritten, so that Spencer's ideas in these two domains must be gleaned from the schematic the two for mathematical and mechanical work, and as a young man he spent some years as His a railroad engineer however, early thoughts, are acters inherited, mean- ing by this that physical or psychic by acquired traits turned to the two subjects an individual to which the rest of his long was to be devoted: evolution and the theory of politics or government His article on the proper sphere government in which of Spencer laid down the prin- of his life are transmissable life Spencer the offspring was firmly convinced of the reality of this process and was willing to let the entire in the course to theory of evolution stand or on fall the issue ciples of his political phil- there osophy appeared as early as 1842 (when Spencer was twenty-two) and it con- quired characters, he ed, or there be developed in his sociology and ethics Spencer was now in Lon- ac- insist- was no evoluit came to was only But when proofs, Spencer tion tained all the basic thoughts later to Either was inheritance of present Of protracted his versy with the Herbert Spencer don, out of a job, and about to be introduced into a circle comprising some of the leading minds of the time Having a rather delicate constitution and being a poor reader, Spencer hardly could have achieved what he did, if not for the stimula- ogist, shall tell in arguments able to contro- German biol- August Weismann, I the next issue Spencer's "Sociology'" in which he traces the evolu- tion and sweeping utilization of the so-called comparative method which figures as henceforth became the favorite operative tool of evolu- he derived from the counsel and criticism of such John Tyndall, the physicist John Stuart Mill, The direct Huxley, Hooker, George Eliot, and Lewis inspiration for his evolutionary theory, Spencer derived from Von Baer's work on embryology, Charles Lyell's contributions to geology, and Malthus's Essay on Population," which had inspired so many other notable achievements Darwin influenced Spencer only indirectly, as the "Principles of Biology" had appeared before the publication of "The Origin of Species." When Darwin's book appeared, Spencer at once accepted the theory of natural selection as a striking formulation of the mechanism of biological evolution, and made it his own by incorporating it in the second edition of the "Biology." But for Spencer, the world was a unity: evolution, if true in biology, had to apply to the entire cosmos Thus of political, ceremonial, tion professional institutions, tionary writers is industrial, notable for military, his method consisted in from many times and places These The essence of this the accumulation of vast collections of data tribes and peoples at different — were then utilized to illustrate or, as Uie evolutionists thought, prove the process of evolution in the facts history of ists human society were thus aiming The principles the evolutionwere three: civil- to demonstrate develops uniformly, meaning by always passes through similar stages; ization this that it this develop- civilization is gradual, meaning by this that sudden or conspicuous changes not occur but that cultural change proceeds by slow and slight accumulation; and the development of civilization is progres- ment of EVOLUTION July 1928 meaning bv improvement It is important sive, that this it tends in the direction of to remember here whereas the that is unquestioned, the existing dififerences of opinion referring merely to mechanisms and processes, of social evolu- the theory and in his wake by a host of anthropologists and sociologists, has not withstood further accumulation of data and the emergence of a critical attitude At this time, all three principles of social evolution indicated above must be regarded as obsolete or, at best, inaccurate For social evolution is neither uniform, nor always gradual, nor is tion as formulated by Herbert Spencer or even generally progressive necessarily phase of the subject, I shall return in To this the last article of this series The outstanding contribution of Spencer's "Ethics" in the main in his "Data of Ethics," "Social Statics," and "Man Versus the State," was his negativcomprised An extreme theory of government istic both temperamentally and in theory, Spencer resented Reluctantly, he infraction of individual freedom all general validity of biological evolution it Page Three individualist was forced to admit that the full exercise of freedom by one individual inevitably conflicts with the equal freedom of other individuals Here Spencer felt that a super-individual agency had to step in, so as to keep the exercise of freedom on the part of each within the bounds compatible with the freedom of all Beyend this, no government should go This theory, aptly designated by Huxley as "administrative nihilism," immediately became the center of animated discussion, and such it has remained to this day As one turns to Spencer's synthetic philosophy in the perspective of time one cannot but feel that whatever errors and exaggerations of his over-ambitious scheme, he has earned once and for all a place of honor among those who have led man's thought into natural channels Natural facts have natural causes If these are known, the facts are understood If they are unthe known, thev must be looked for The Nebraska Tooth By Henshaw Ward "TPHE fundamentalists are having * merry time over a the episode of "the Nebraska tooth,"' and not begrudge them their fun and last for years we should The little argument up ten thousand will brighten will anti- American Museum, gave out to the press a statement the paleontologists had probably been mistaken He reported that further investigations in Nebraska had shown the probability that the tooth was not anthropoid that evolution speeches at will never be animal About But the real lesson of this affair mentioned by the enemies of science ago there was discovered in Neif it had come from the skull of some primate It was most carefully examined by three experts of the American Museum They all six years braska a tooth that looked as agreed that the tooth had grown in the jaw of some called "sub-human." The Bulletin of the American Museum for February, 1925, declared with absolute confidence that no tooth had ever been more rigorously scrutinized and that "every suggestion made by scientific skeptics had been weighed and found wanting." The tooth was made the basis for naming a newgenus and species of anthropoid Hesperopithecus haroldcookii, in honor of the finder, Harold J Cook early ape, Henry Fairfield Osborn considered the tooth so im- portant and so well authenticated that he spoke of thus in his book, The Earth Speaks to Bryan, 1925 : it "The Earth spoke to Bryan from his own native state of Nebraska, in the message of a diminutive tooth, the herald of our knowledge of anthropoid apes in America This tooth is like the 'still small voice.' speaks volumes of truth stitutes irrefutable This This little tooth bit of truth con- evidence that the man-apes wandered over from Asia into North America." The newspapers accepted the judgment of the greatest paleontologists all, but belonged to an extinct peccary, a pig-like He retracted completely his former judgment of five years' standing He announced his error, Thus a dreadful blunder was exposed If ever Dame Science had cause to blush for the rashness of one of her followers, she had it then John Roach Straton was inspired to real wit by this gruesome revelation; all the cohorts of fundamentalists shouted for joy, and will continue to rejoice as the years go by They have a right to be happy And the louder they are in mirth the more thev will advertise that they not understand what mental integrity is, nor what nobility of soul is When Gregory proclaimed his mistake, he was doing the finest sort of act that human beings can aspire to He was showing the world that science will not tolerate pride or hypoc- A risy scientist who palters with truth is infamous, braska tooth." The strength of the evolution theory is in this very stages of its development it has been subjected to the most severe tests, that errors bv biolothat and poured upon Bryan a great deal of ridicule for denying the evidence that had been found in his own gists have been unflinchinglv proclaimed, and state theory has thus been purged of misconceptions Wm K Gregory, of the h must declare the truth as he finds it, even to his own hurt, and spare not In all the rhetoric of fundamentalism there is not a fraction of the nobility of soul that has been shown by the episode of "the Nescientist fact But on February 19, 1928, know- ing full well the scorn and ridicule that he would bring upon himself from anti-science orators at all sternest critics of the theory are the the tliat men who make The it EVOLUTION Pace Four How Old Is the July, 1928 World? By Allan Strong Broms IJECENTLY published scientific measurements of the **• age of the earth increase rather than decrease the hundreds of millions of years since the formation of the earliest the known consensus The shown rocks In the conservative of oldest known 1,500 million years, but his estimates of the time short actual opinion may figure The most trustworthy means of determining the ages of the rocks as the uranium-lead method, already described in the February issue of Evolution We know the rate at which the radio-active mineral uranium breaks down into lead By measuring the relative amounts of uranium and of lead in a given rock, we can fix its age very closely by a simple computation The conservative results (tabulated by Joseph Barrell) are shown in the diagram The bottom up, from the upward eras ttie to is be as geologic the present, that being in which the various have been laid down so short that there its is GEOLOGIC MOUNTAIN a whole outward and yet DIVISIONS BUILDING permits HIMALAYAS CASCADES EUROPE CR£tACE0U5 time are: and Recent periods Paleozoic eras are melted We know sion shrinking MISSIS5IPPIAN than its iire cure 4A Inc folder Bible Most powerful tract ever written Fundamentalism $1 Sample free lor 100 Copies FREEMAN HOPWOOD, General Secretary !19 E 14ih St., New York Citv Gives counts and Drices on over 8.000 different lines of business No matter what your business, in this book you vlH find the number of your prospec- tive customers listed Valuable information Is also ^Iven as to how you can use the mails to secure orders and Inquiries for your products or services FREE Copy CO., Detroit, Mich Write for Your R L POLK & LnrEest City Directory Publishers In ibe World Mulllns LIsl Compilers— Business Stallstlcs Producers of Direct Mall Adverllslnc EVOLUTION Pac-e Sixteen July, 1928 THE WAR ON xMODERN SCIENCE By MAYNARD SHIPLEY President, Science League of America A short History of the Fundamentalist Attacks on Evolution and Modernism Traces the reaction and far-flung battle between the army line modern science State by of State $3.00 SCIENCE VERSUS By CHARLES President, T DOGMA SPRADING The Libertarian League Upholds Evolution and Makes a Smashing Counter-Attack x\gainst the Dogmatists A splendid campaign handbook $1.50 Both, postpaid, 96 LETTER FROM INDIA Bombay 7, through the personal recommendation of such noted readers as Professor Hugo De Vries is surely worth your circulation you may send copies of the while paper to the following professors of different Colleges here, whom I am sure will he interested, and who may be instrumental it YOU'LL in here WANT YOUR to read Yours for Evolution M J PRESSWALA Evolution Publishing Corporation, 96 For the enclosed biologist, A MAGAZINE THAT GAINS that I could not resist the temptation to subscribe to it popularizing famous to mail a copy to a This friend immediately subscribes and sends others What a splendid endorsement for Evolution me by Professor Hugo De was so pleased with the copy like, world friend in India introduced to you Netherlands, enough of Evolution Dear Sir:Your excellent journal Evolution was If City father of the Mutation Theory, thinks well Managing Editor I EVOLUTION BOOK SERVICE Fifth Avenue, New York of India Mr L E Katterfeld, and Order from PROFESSOR HUGO DE VRIES April 14, 1928 Vries .?4.00 it too So you'd better send some of their subscriptions right along with your own Fifth Avenue, New Yorli, N Y (Single subscription, $1) (To three addresses, $2) send Evolution for one year to: $, Name Street (li you don't want FRIENDS to tear cover, and Number any old sneet ol paper will do.) City and State ... ask for a teaching of evolution the in furthering THE EVOLUTIONISTS Do this thinks that in expected the business Evolution magazine a success Checks should be made payable to Evolution Publishing... endorsement for Evolution me by Professor Hugo De was so pleased with the copy like, world friend in India introduced to you Netherlands, enough of Evolution Dear Sir:Your excellent journal Evolution. .. and the evolutionists have less time for their educational campaign The fundamentalists idea by full the text of Arkansas the petition sponsored Anti -Evolution Leagut and the merican Anti-Evolution