26 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



Theory of Generation is to be such a philosophic comprehension of an organic 

 body, very different from one merely histoi'ical." — Caspar Friedrich WoLrF 

 (1764). 



In approaching each science it is, in several respects, pro- 

 fitable to glance at the course of its evolution. The well- 

 known principle that " whatever has come into being can 

 only be known from the process by which it came into 

 being " is applicable to science. By tracing its gradual 

 development, we shall most clearly perceive its tasks and 

 aims. We shall also find that the present condition of the 

 History of the Evolution of Man, with all its peculiar cir- 

 cumstances, can only be properly understood by taking into 

 consideration the history of the evolution of the science 

 itself. The examination will not detain us long ; for the 

 History of the Evolution of Man is one of the very youngest 

 of the Natural Sciences. This is equally true of its two 

 divisions : the History of the Germ, or Ontogeny, and the 

 History of the Tribe, or Phylogeny. 



Passing over such most ancient germs of the science as 

 are found in classical antiquity, and which we shall have 

 to discuss presently, the true History of the Evolution of 

 Man, as a science, really begins in the year 1759, when 

 Caspar Friedrich Wolff", one of the most eminent of German 

 naturalists, published his Theoria Geyierationis. This was 

 the first foundation-stone for a true history of animal 

 n-erms. In 1809, exactly fifty years later, Jean Lamarck 

 published the PJdlosoj^hie Zoologique, the first attempt at a 

 History of Descent ; and in 1859, another half century later, 

 appeared Darwin's work, which must be regarded as the' 

 first to give a scientific basis to that attempt. But, before 

 carefully examining this as the real foundation of the 



