212 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



discover those causes, and to trace them to the chemical and 

 physical properties of matter. 



Among the phenomena of conservative transmission, we 

 must now mention, as the fifth law, the law of abridged or 

 simplifed transmission. This law is very important in 

 regard to embryology or ontogeny, that is in regard to the 

 history of the development of organic individuals. Onto- 

 geny, or the history of the development of individuals, as I 

 have already mentioned in the first chapter (p. 10), and as I 

 subsequently shall explain more minutely, is nothing but 

 a short and quick repetition of Phytogeny dependent on 

 the laws of transmission and adaptation — that is, a repetition 

 of the palseontological history of development of the whole 

 organic tribe, or phylum, to which the organism belongs. 

 If, for example, we follow the individual development of a 

 man, an ape, or any other higher mammal within the ma- 

 ternal body from the egg, we find that the foetus or embryo 

 arising out of the egg passes through a series of very differ- 

 ent forms, which on the whole agTees with, or at least runs 

 parallel to, a series of forms which is presented to us by the 

 historical chain of ancestors of the higher mammals. Among 

 these ancestors we may mention certain fishes, amphibians, 

 marsupials, etc. But the parallelism or agreement of these 

 two series of development is never quite complete ; on the 

 contrary, in ontogeny there are always gaps and leaps which 

 indicate the omission of certain stages belonging to the 

 phylogeny. Fritz Miiller, in his excellent work, " Fiir 

 Darwin," ^^ has clearly shown in the case of the Crus- 

 tacea, or crabs, that " the historical record preserved in the 

 individual history of development is gradually obscured, 

 in proportion as development takes a more and move direct 



