Letter to Frederick Orpen Bower from Dukinfield Henry Scott

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Letter to Frederick Orpen Bower from Dukinfield Henry Scott concerning theoretical anatomy and the current backlash against Darwinism. He rejects Bower's assertion that he misunderstood Bower's argument by saying his interpretation of theoretical anatomy as a clue to affinity is not too different to Bower's interpretation of theoretical anatomy as one of the factors of phyletic grouping. He claims that the reaction against Darwinism is probably the great biological movement of the present time and gives examples of recent addresses by scientists such as William Bateson and John Christopher Willis in support. He remarks that Darwin himself was still spoken of with respect but that the Darwinian age was over, "Natural selection is on the go, so is variation and phylogeny is tottering. Not much is left of the old Evolution doctrine of our earlier days," and that only an old fogey like himself remains. He agrees with Bower that David Thomas Gwynne-Vaughan was a pillar of the old edifice.

• Anatomy, Theoretical
• Darwin, Backlash to
• Darwinism
• Evolution (Biology)
• Phylogeny
• Professional Interaction
• Variation (Biology)

• Bateson | William | 1861-1926 | English biologist and professor of genetics, University of Cambridge
• Bower | Frederick Orpen | 1855-1948 | regius professor of botany, University of Glasgow
• Darwin | Charles Robert | 1809-1882 | naturalist
• Gwynne-Vaughan | David Thomas | 1871-1915 | professor of botany, University of Reading
• Scott | Dukinfield Henry | 1854-1934 | president of the Linnean Society
• Willis | John Christopher | 1868-1958 | director of the botanic gardens, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)