Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-02-17

According to previous announcements
Prof. A. Ernst Of the Northwestern Unver-
sity, lecture. on Monday of last week in
the Music Hall. The large and attentive
audience which greeted him was hatter-
ing testimonial to his Evolutionary powers
The lecture, which was such that it must
be heard to be justly appreciated, revealed
| the fact that the Professor is we'll versed in
the different sciences from which he draws
| his illustrations. After few Introductory
| remarks in which the speaker announced
his platform to be that of belief against I'M
belief he proceeded to his subject. Having
made the statement that the lecture was to
be directed against materialism, the speaker
| at once attacked the materiali.tic theory OF
| the eternity of the earth. He endeavored
to prove this from the fact that the earth s
crust gives proof of successive periods of
formation, and from the fact that plants
and animals had beginning and success
sive development, as is proved by the record
of the rocks from the azoic to those of the
most recent formation. IL view of those
facts we could only suppose the earth to be
eternal on the supposition that it has been
eternaIly changing and revolving, which
could not be scientifically maintained
That, according to philosophic laws which
are universally admitted, the revolution Of
h. nth 1r TO ~
cause only in a perfect vacuum could it con-
tinue to revolve in endless revolutions
The resistance of.either, however slight it
| might be, would finally have to destroy its
revolution, and consequently bring destruc
ton to the earth itself.
From the discussion of these topics the
speaker went over to the theory which ex-
plains the origin of the species by process
| OF evolution. Here the Darwinian theory
of the descent of man from the monkey
was made the Subject OF the Professors
scruti nizing investigation Darwinism re
solved itself into two propositions: l. That
| in the course of almost endless generations,
| and without the overriding of higher iu-
| telligence adapting means to an end, high
| er organisms have been developed from
| lower organisms. 2. That under suitable
! conditions, life Or a life. cell may be
mechanically developed from unorganized
| matter.
The fact that Darwinian theory required
six laws which had to support one another,
| to make up the system, was against IT.
probability because, six bad ones would
| by no means make one good one The
| first law, that Of adoption, was not of uni
versal applicability, because many animals
could not IL. tanned and would not adapt
themselves to other conditions, but would
| sooner perish, e. g. grlzzly- bear and the
| rattle-snake There we're only tw . illustra
lions which Darwin could advance In favor
| of this law: tie salamander and the colu
bernatrx; but in both cases no new specific
distinction was the result of adaptation 10
| different circumstances. AS no new species
| could be derived in this way Darwin found
| it necessary to add another laW-nalural
| selection. According to this law only the
more favorably organized plants and ami
| mails would survive; but since all the mem
| bers of any species have equally favorable
organizations with reference to specific
distinctions, and differ only in individual
strength, stature and health, this law could
never produce new species, but merely
result in more robust individuals of the
same species, although experience does not
even confirm this. 1t was therefore ne
cessary to prove this law by two new ones,
| the struggle for life and that of heredity.
| With regard to the struggle for life, just
the opposite was true of plants in most
| cases. The plant could not protect itself
against the herbivorous animals which
| would most naturally eat the best organized
plants first. In the animal kingdom the
same was true The whale made no dis
inction between poor and good herring.
The speaker admitted that the struggle
for life may explain the destruction of
| poorly organized species but in no way did
| it account for the origin of new ones.
The law of heredity which teaches that
| the favorable properties Of the parent are
inherited by the offspring until it amounts
| to new species was refuted by the fact
that only specific distinctions are thus in
herited Finally sexual selection was to
give the needed proof to the tottering sys-
tenn. This also was found to be contrary
to experience.
In conclusion Prof. Ernst said, that the
theory whic b explains the origin of life by
making it the creation of an Almighty
Being, is the one which recommends itself
most torcibly to his own mind.