Charles Darwin himself never had the audacity to say so. He wrote in "Descent of man," 1871, Vol. 1, p. 158:- "We must not fall into the error of supposing that the early progenitors of man were identical with, or even closely resembled, any existing ape or monkey."
Professor Osborn, an ardent evolutionist (Guide Leaflet, Series No. 52, p. 4), says:- "Man is not descended from any known form of ape, either living or fossil."
The late Professor Virchow of Berlin, the highest German authority in physiology, and spoken of as " the foremost physician on the globe," for thirty years president of the Berlin Anthropological Society, once a pronounced advocate of Darwin's views, saw through the folly of them, and in his famous lecture on " Freedom, of Science," said:- "It is all nonsense. It cannot be proved by Science that man descended from the ape or from any other animal. Since the announcement of the theory, all real scientific knowledge has proceeded in the opposite direction."
Later at a convention of anthropologists in Vienna Virchow said:- "The attempt to find the transition from animal to man has ended in total failure. The middle link has not been found and never will be. It has been proved beyond doubt, that during the last five thousand years, there has been no noticeable change in mankind."
Dr. Trass, the Fossilist, or Palaeontologist, who devoted his long life to the study of fossil animals, is most emphatic:- "The idea that mankind is descended from any Simian [ape-like] species whatever is certainly the most foolish ever put forth by man writing on the history of man. It should be handed down to posterity as a new edition of the Memorial of Human Follies, No proof of this fantastic theory can be given from discovered fossils."
The late Professor Haeckel of Jena, a thorough-going evolutionist, and a pronounced and fierce atheist, who glorified in saying that Darwin's theory was "Anti-Genesis," bewailed the fact that he was left almost alone in advocating evolution. He wrote:- "Most modern investigators of Science have come to the conclusion that the doctrine of evolution, and particularly Darwinism, is an error and cannot be maintained."
Then he mentions the following men distinguished in various ways, whom he terms "bold and talented scientists" as having renounced evolution:-
Dr. E. Dennert, author of "At the Death-bed of Darwinism" (1903);
Dr. Goette, a Strasburg Professor, whose articles appeared in the Umschau (1903);
Professor Edward Hoppes, known as "The Hamburg Savant;"
Professor Paulson, of Berlin, who declared that Haeckel's theory "is a disgrace to the philosophy of Germany."
Professor Rutemeyer, geologist and fossilist of Basle, Switzerland, who charges evolutionists, especially of the Haeckel type, with "playing false with the public and with the natural sciences."
Professor Wilhelm Max Wundt of Leipsic, who wrote in support of evolution, but who has since described these writings as "the great crime of his youth that will take him all the rest of his time to expiate."
Much more might be adduced on these lines, but space forbids.