Volume 281, Number 5375 Issue of 17 Jul 1998, pp. 347 - 351****
Richardson et al. seem surprised at finding themselves in the unwanted
company of creationists. One might have foreseen this. The liberties
Haeckel took with some of his figures gained fame only because they were
welcome to practising anti-Darwinists, who gladly exploited what they
called "fraud" (1). To some of them, every sort of vilifying argument
was welcome. This seems to still be true today, as is evident from
recent claims in the British press that Haeckel had been convicted by
his university of alleged fraud. On being asked to disclose their
sources, one of the respective authors (2) kindly referred us to a book
agitating against the origin of man from other primates (which in turn
gave no relevant reference), while the other (3) did not answer our
queries. Because, to our knowledge, no respectable historical source
mentions this conviction of Haeckel, we conclude that the claim for it
must be based on hearsay, not fact. By way of compensation, the authors
(4) who inadvertently triggered the recent round of Haeckel-bashing have
meanwhile acknowledged that "on a fundamental level, Haeckel was right."
Klaus Sander
Institut fźr Biologie I (Zoologie),
UniversitŠt Freiburg, Hauptstrasse 1, D-79104
Freiburg, Germany
Roland Bender
Anatomisches Institut I, UniversitŠt Freiburg,
Albertstrasse17, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany,
References
1.R. Bender, Biol. Uns. Zeit 28, 157 (1998).
2.T. J. Hamblin and R. E. M. Moore, The Times, 18 August 1997, p. 18.
3.New Sci., Issue 2098, 23 (1997).
4.M. K. Richardson et al., Anat. Embryol. 196, 91 (1997).