The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-02-16
BIOGRAPHICAL CALENDAR.
February IS.

Ernest Heinrich Haeckel, the emf
nent revolutionist of the university of
Jena and Germanys greatest living
savant, is IS years old today, and his
birthday marks his formal retirement
from the chair of zoology at Jena
which he has occupied since 1862.
Haeckel is he Darwin of Germany,
and since the death of Darwin, Hulk
ley and Spencer, he has been looked up
to by scientists the world over as their
greatest leader.
Dr. Haeckel was born in Potsdam,
February Is, 1884, He studied natural
science and medicine with VirchoW
and Johanna Muller, and soon dis
tinguished himself as a leader in evo-
lutionary thought. After a period of
udy at Naples and Messina, Italy,
he became professor at the university
Of jena in 1862, and his name and fame
soon spread abroad, with the result
that students have come from all over
the world to listen to the lectures OF
the master evolutionist.
HaeckePs life has been devoted to
applying the doctrine of evolution, and
he was a personal friend of Darwin,
Huxley and other leaders in scientific
research in England. He has written
scores of monumental works setting
forth facts and theories in the sup
port of evolution, and has carried on
the work where Darwin left off.
Darwin paid little or no attention to
the effects of evolutionary doctrine
upon religion. Huxley coined the word
"agnostic" to suit his frame of mind,
opI Cnonoor 6icr,oic S11norp af11r SIN
as the "unknowable;" but Haeckel has
sought to formulate a new religion in
accordance with his monistic philoso-
ply of life-a religion from which God
is banished as mere Pigment of the
mind and immortality designated
crude superstition"
The retirement of Professor Hack
ell today removes from the ranks of the
worlds pedagogues it's grea. est public
teacher. A visit to his lecture room
was recently described by Friedrich
Lipsius:
Shortly before 9 a. m, the benches
in the big square auditorium filled with
students, male and female, Germans,
Russians, French, English and not
few Amerfcans-youth, middle age and
old age-crowd around the professors
cathedral.
cat The stroke of 9 Haeckel en .ors,
still powerful figure, with a high
forehead, and the rosy complexion of
a healthy German girl of 20. Beard and
hair are slightly gray-the typical sa-
want of the F'atherland, combining the
aggressiveness of an old warrior with
a childs good nature.
"On the walls of the room and on
the several stands and easels, placed
at intervals, are dozens of statistical
ltabes and drawings of plants and AMI
mails, most' of them done by the pro-
fessor himself, for Haeckel is an ac-
complished draughtsman and fine ar
tst
"Haeckel speaks without notes; his
most elaborate scientific lectures were
delivered in this manner. AS he once
pointed ou-. his is not knowledge ac-
quired from books; he only teaches
things that he has seen with his own
eyes that he himself discovered, often
after long, protracted labors.
Here and there a word of criticism
is uttered throwing down the gaun
let to opponents of his views, but more
often the lecturer INDUCES in mild
raillery and in huromous remarks that
set the dignified auditorium astir with
laugh err