The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-09-16
A LEARNED CATHOLIC BIOLOGIST

Rev. Erich Wasmann, S. j., confounds
the InfideI Scientists of the Day
A Leader in the World of
Biological Thought.
1t is a pity the scientific works of
emburg, could not be issued in English
at popular prices so as to be read and
known of all men. He is one of the
best-known biologists living, his special
study being that of ants and termites,
families and colonies of which he has
kept and studied for many years. He
has made himself famous throughout
Germany by his determined and pro-
longed antagonism to Haeckel and all
his school of materialistic atheists, and
has missed no opportunity of exposing
their dishonest methods of dealing
with scientific problems, and of refut-
ing the abominable doctrines which
they announce so confidently. Would
that Father Wasmann's books, espe-
cially his Problem of Evolution" and
Modern Biology and the Theory of
Evolution" could find their places, at
the same cheap rates, at the stalls with
Joseph McCabe's translation of
Haeckel's Infamous productions! This
illustrious Jesuit is the man who,
native of South Tyrol, was in his
youth condemned to death-not, let us
hasten to add, by his superiors or by
a judge, nor yet for any crime, but by
the doctors, on account of consump-
ton. Providence, however, having a
great work in store for him, he refused
to obey the invitation of the tuber-
culous bacilli, and has lived and flour
ished exceedingly, and today is the
most powerful champion in Germany
of the Christian position regarding the
origin of the world and of man-not
primarily because it is Christian, but
because it is the most truly scientific.
His eminence as man of science, and
the weight of his authority, may be
judged from the fact that, after a
series Of lectures given by him in Ber-
lin in February, 1907, which aroused
enormous interest, public discussion
took place in the great Hall of the
Geological Gardens, at which Father
Wasmann maintained his conclusions
against eleven of the foremost scient-
lists of the day, specially chosen to
come and deliver their attacks. 1t was
charged against him, of course, by the
/ al, ;a+i ooso lists of+ hot
that he was full of ecclesiastical preju-
| dice, that he was fettered by Roman
dogmas; that Tin the words of Profess
sor Plate, one of his opponents), "he
could not be a genuine scientist or a
genuine scholar; that as a priest, and
above all as a Jesuit, he could never
come to any scientific conclusion con-
ficting with Church authority; and so
on, and SO forth.
But he cleared himself in grand style
over and over again from such un-
warrantable accusations, and showed
that the charge Of prepossession came
badly from man like Haeckel, who is
himself pledged to the eyes to support
through thick and thin the atheistical
theory of Monism. And the simple
fact remains, though his protested op-
ponents could hardly be expected to
acknowledge it, that in the opinion of
the unbiased public the Jesuit succeed
ed admirably in upholding the Chris
tian standpoint on the question. The
verdict may be given in the words of
one out of some five or six hundred
newspaper articles that dealt with the
Berlin affair. The Hochland (non-
Catholic) of April 1, 1907, says: ''The
disgraceful [sic1 fact remains that
Wasmann, an Insignificant priest, in
consequence of his. training and not of
his intellectual abilities, speaking as
a philosopher, routed our collective
scientists, and in the course of the dis
cussion displayed the greatest tact in
combating that scientific arrogance
which deals with truths that are linn.
tied to an existence Of twenty-five
years, as Ibsen-S toccmann tells us;
whereas the Church, In her exalted wis.
1 dom, il fully conscious that no earthly
| truth of any kind whatever can be con.
trary to a divine truth"
These last words are virtually the
same as the motto that Father Was
mann has chosen for his studies
There can never be any real contra
diction between faith and reason"
Secured from fear and from error with
this announcement of the Vatican
Council, the learned Jesuit boldly pur-
sues his learned Investigations"