294 THE HISTOKY OF CREATION". 



ally known, and formed the foundation of all subsequent 

 investigations of the history of individual development, 

 The study of ontogenesis now received a great stimulus, and 

 soon there appeared the classical investigations of the two 

 friends, Christian Pander (1817) and Carl Ernst Bar (1819). 

 Bar, in his remarkable " Entwickelungsgeschichte der 

 Thiere," ^^ worked out the ontogeny of vertebrate ani- 

 mals in all its important facts. He carried out a series of 

 such excellent observations, and illustrated them by such 

 profound philosophical reflections, that his work became 

 the foundation for a thorough understanding of this im- 

 portant group of animals, to which, of course, man also 

 belongs. The facts of embryology alone would be suffi- 

 cient to solve the question of man's position in nature, which 

 is the highest of all problems. Look attentively at and 

 compare the eight figures which are represented on the ad- 

 joining Plates II. and III., and it will be seen that the 

 philosophical importance of embryology cannot be too 

 liighly estimated. 



We may well ask, What do our so-called " educated " 

 circles, wdio think so much of the high civilization of the 

 19th century, know of these most important biological facts, 

 of these indispensable foundations for understanding their 

 own organism ? How much do our speculative philosophers 

 and theologians know about them, who fancy they can arrive 

 at an understanding of the human organism by mere guess- 

 work or divine inspiration ? What indeed do the majority of 

 naturalists, not excepting the majority of the so-called "zool- 

 ogists " (including the entomologists !), know about them ? 



The answer to this question tells much to the shame of 

 the persons above indicated, and we must confess, willingly 



