CHAPTER III 



GREAT STEPS IN EVOLUTION 



Evolution a great Succession of Achievements The Begin- 

 nings Protoplasm and Organisms Characteristic Fea- 

 tures of Living Creatures Origins among the Protozoa 

 The Protists Plants and Animals The Cell-Cycle The 

 Beginning of a Body Beginning of Death The Origin 

 of Sex The Beginnings of Brains The Beginnings of 

 Behaviour Progress along many Lines The Ascent of 

 Vertebrates The Ascent of Man Evolution as Retro- 

 gressive Deterioration and Parasitism. 



EVOLUTION A GREAT SUCCESSION OF 

 ACHIEVEMENTS. It is impossible to appre- 

 ciate our own human position aright unless 

 we see it in the light of history. We must 

 think of the distant stone ages when man 

 made weapons of chipped flints and then of 

 polished stone; of the prehistoric metal 

 ages that followed when man made weapons 

 and utensils of copper, of bronze, and then 

 of iron; and of the gradual growth of civil- 

 ization along many lines. We are so famil- 

 iar with the result that we are apt not to 

 think enough of the long succession of achieve- 

 ments each a great event in human history. 

 It is one of the uses of a museum, provided 

 it be on evolutionary lines, like the Pitt 



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