464 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



by the Ampliioxus ! But apart from all this, the Amphi- 

 oxus (skull- less, brainless, and memberless as it is) deserves 

 all respect as being of our own flesh and blood ! At any 

 rate, the Amphioxus has better right to be an object of 

 profoundest admiration and of devoutest reverence, than any 

 one in that worthless rabble of so-called " saints " in whose 

 honour our "civilized and enlightened" cultured nations 

 erect temples and decree processions. 



The infinite importance of the Amphioxus and the Ascidian 

 as explaining the development of Man, and consequently his 

 true nature, may be clearly seen from the following sum- 

 maries, in which I have stated the principal homologies of 

 the highest and of the lowest Vertebrates (Table IX.). The 

 table exhibits the undeniable fact that the human embryo 

 at an early period of its development agrees in the most 

 essential points of its organization with the Amphioxus and 

 with the embryo of the Ascidian, while, on the other hand, 

 it differs radically from the developed Man. It is, however, 

 equally important that we should remember the profound 

 gulf which separates the Amphioxus from all other Verte- 

 brates. Even yet the Lancelet is represented in all text- 

 books of Zoology as a member of the Fish class. When (in 

 1866) I totally separated the Amphioxus from the Fishes, and 

 divided the entire vertebrate tribe into two chief groups, the 

 Skull-less Animals (Amphioxus) and the Skulled Animals 

 (all other Vertebrates), my classification was regarded as a 

 useless and unfounded innovation.^^^ How the matter 

 stands is best seen in the appended table (Table X). In all 

 essential points, Fishes are more nearly allied to Man than 

 to the Amphioxus. 



