AUTHOR'S PEEFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION, 



-»♦*- 



I AM desirous of prefacing the English edition of the 

 " History of Creation " with a few remarks which may serve 

 to explain the origin and object of this book. In the year 

 1866 I published, under the title " Generelle Morphologic," 

 a somewhat comprehensive work, which constituted the first 

 attempt to apply the general doctrine of development to the 

 whole range of organic morphology (Anatomy and Biogenesis), 

 and thus to make use of the vast march onwards which the 

 genius of Charles Darwin has eflected in all biological 

 science by his reform of the Descent Theory and its esta- 

 blishment through the doctrine of selection. At the same 

 time, in the " Generelle Morphologic," the first attempt was 

 made to introduce the Descent Theory into the systematic 

 classification of animals and plants, and to found a " natural 

 system " on the basis of genealogy ; that is, to construct 

 hj^pothetical pedigrees for the various species of organisms. 



The " Generelle Morphologic " found but few readers, for 

 which the voluminous and unpopular style of treatment, and 

 its too extensive Greek terminology, may be chiefly to blame. 

 But a proportionately large measure of approval has met 



