But Sammy's transplanted heart began to fail. He was immediately placed on a heart-lung machine. This supplied and removed carbon dioxide Letters to the Editor from his blood, and it circulated blood through his body. * Brief letters-one or two pages-are more likely to be The doctors consulted bioengineers about Sammy. printed than are long ones, which may be cut. Because almost all of his life-sustaining functions were being carried on by machines, it might be pos- sible to compress all of these machines into one mobile unit, which could be controlled by electrical Objections to impulses from the brain. This unit would be equip- James T. Robinson, in his article "Incommensura- ped with mechanical arms to enable him to perform bility of Evolution and Special Creation" 33 A (ABT manipulative tasks. mechanism to create a flow of [9]: 535-538,545), said that I do not understand the air over his vocal cords might enable him to speak. of the evolution theory. To do all this, they would have to amputate at the In refutation I have analyzed the four recurring neck and attach his head to the machine, which arguments for evolution and find them weak. These would then supply all nutrients to his brain. Sammy are (i) the rock record, (ii) homologies, (iii) extra- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/34/5/287/40549/4443934.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 consented, and the operation was successfully per- polated mutational data, and (iv) the appeal to formed. authority. Sammy functioned well for a few years. However, Robinson implies the infallibility of carbon dating. slow deterioration of his brain cells was observed I find serious limitations: (i) Radiocarbon is ac- and was diagnosed as terminal. So the medical team curate to 50,000years partly because the carbon must that had developed around Sammy began to pro- be the original radioactive carbon incorporated into gram his brain. A miniature computer was devel- the organism'sbody while it was alive. (ii) Practicing oped; it could be housed in a machine that was geophysicists, active in frequent exploratory probing humanlike in appearance, movement, and manner- of the 's crust, do not use radioactivity to mea- isms. As the computer was installed, Sammy's brain sure age of strata, but only for porosites, etc. (iii) cells completely deteriorated. Sammy was once Suitable materials must be found in critical places. again able to leave the hospital with complete as- Exploration for these in each sedimentary stratum surance that he would not return with biologic ill- has not been done to verify the idealized geologic nesses. timetable. (iv) Most age determinations by radio- activity have been made on minerals in igneous During the course of this presentation I stop and rocks. (v) Sedimentary dating is approximated by igneous measurement. Thus ask if Sammy is still alive. Students are erroneous assumptions allowed to can be made. discuss and argue their viewpoints. Generally, all Historical geology uncritically postulated students can agree that he is alive at the beginning of organic evolution. The idealized time-sequence showing the narration and not alive at the end of it. There is primitive to advanced forms exists only on paper-a always disagreement in identifying the point at which result of theorizing, not . The explanation "Substituted Sammy" ceases to live. The students for strata disarray is that geologic events disrupted inevitably ask me when he died, but I do not give the original hierarchic order, but often them an answer. My physical response to their questions evidences of strata-shiftingare missing. usually points out the strengths of the students' Robinson feels that only the of arguments. The theory evolution students are asked to make notes of is an incentive to research. I feel that are the arguments, and we discuss them as the biology able to weigh results of studies in the light of course two develops. From these considerations the stu- possible explanations. Within the gene-pool limit dents develop a definition of life and continue to for each , and consideringrecombinations, etc., examine and refine it as the course progresses. each species remains a fixed species, the only changes Donald F. Shebesta being of the intraspecies sort. Admitting this fixism 5303 W. Hemlock Rd. as a possible alternative to will not Milwaukee, Wis. 53223 result in scientific sterility, but will give added in- centive to test and judge results in the light of the of fixism and the hypothesis of change. If many forces are applied to living matter and the results are death or intraspecies changes only, then fixism tends to be verified. If fixism can be verified Black Bear Respects Grizzly as a law of nature, then we can assume that each The black bear has a deep-rooted respect for the species is a special creation. grizzly bear. As many as eight or nine have been George H. M. Lawrence in his of Vais- seen to climb trees when a grizzly arrived on the cular Plants (1965: Macmillan Co., New York), p. scene. 94, states:

REPORTS-CURRENTTOPICS-QUERIES 287 The basis of all evolutionarytheories is the belief judgments. Such an argument is unrelated to sci- [emphasis added] that living organisms may have entific accounts of evolution and . progressed (though with many digressions) from If any of Holt's statements are correct, then I have primitive to more advanced forms. . . . A major [ideal accomplishment]will be a valid phylogenetic homework to do. Because I don't think those points classificationcomplete in all details and free from can be documented in the reputable scientific litera- gaps and missing links. A phylogenetic system of ture and the writer doesn't join the substantive classificationfor plants would provide the answer to issues in my paper, I have no further comment. questions of their origin, to [sic] their modes of evolution, to problemsof monophyleticismvs. poly- phyleticism,the identity of primitive and advanced characters,etc. Who Paid for the Insurance? These are respectable goals, but the truth may be Lloyd's of London has dropped its coverage of that Lawrence finds it impossible to show progression company officers involved in suits arising from pol- because no progression occurred. Suppose the basic lution problems. This kind of insurance came to light of a assumptions of a natural beginning life and recently when it was disclosed that the Penn Central natural evolution of species are false. Suppose origins Railroad had purchased a liability policy were not strictly natural events. In that case no $10,000,000 to protect its officers from the consequences of law- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/34/5/287/40549/4443934.pdf by guest on 25 September 2021 amount of scientific can retrace history suits brought by stockholders. and make nature completely autonomous merely to accommodate men's research for truth through empiricism. Indeed, can any limit the so narrowly that he dares to assume the natural only, Cash for Quashing Trashers to assume that man is a grown-up germ-insisting that his view alone is productive and scientifically A mother and son have received a $12,500bounty sound? Is this not indefensible intellectual arrogance, from the federal government for taking action when especially when his contentions are unproved and they saw a concrete company dumping washings unprovable? from its mixing trucks in the East River. Reports The philosophic danger inherent in making man an from Gwen Zeichner and her son Steven, 17, enabled animalistic being in a materialistic universe has the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to take movies begun. Already we condone fetuscide, a devaluation that led to the company being indicted for polluting of life done in the name of biologic principles. the river... . The firm pleaded guilty and was fined We tacitly approve not just because the father is $25,000by U.S. District Court Judge Inzer B. Wyatt, morally unable to assume responsibility for his acts, who directed that half of the amount go to the and the mother also, both subscribing to hedonism, Zeichners under a proviso of the 1899 Refuse Act. but also because has been made oversensitive (Associated Press report) to overpopulation estimates. We, like overcrowded rats in a cage, are killing our young. I sincerely believe that insistence on a natural origin only, for man, and on his "development" (a PRACTICALINSTRUCTIONS WANTED favorite propagandistic word used by evolutionists) through the world, will lead to a loss of Teaching materials for biotechnicians are to be quality in human life-especially to a serious loss developed for the American Institute of Biological of the ability to make sound moral judgments. When Sciences. Topics to be emphasized include analytic this happens, neither , whatever its methods, techniques (e.g., for determining feed efficiency), nor scientists, whatever their , will be animal techniques (e.g., handling rodents), botanic exempt from blame. techniques (e.g., how to transplant from flats to Ruth V. Holt field plots), microbial culture methods (e.g., how to Yates Senior High School isolate a single cell), microscopy techniques (e.g., 3703 Sampson St. making frozen sections), preparative and basic skills Houston, Texas 77004 (e.g., how to calculate or prepare normal solutions), preservation methods (e.g., preparing herbarium specimens), and sterilizing techniques (e.g., use of James T. Robinson comments: chemicals for this). Holt does not join the central argument of the Practical instructions are being solicited from paper, but she seems to indicate that increased abor- technicians experienced in these matters. The in- tion and a decline in (hedonism) are formation will be incorporated in single-task "Bio- caused by a people's acceptance of biologic evolution tech Teaching Modules." Further information and as an explanation of their origins. She seems to im- a list of specific needs for data may be obtained from ply that if a people accept a spiritual cause for man John H. Busser, director, Project Biotech, 3900 Wis- they will not lose the ability to make sound moral consin Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016.

288 THE AMERICANBIOLOGY TEACHER, MAY 1972