426 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



the gill-cavity, and have no special channels of exit. When 

 the eggs of the female and the seed masses of the male are 

 matured, they fall into the body-cavity, and are expelled 

 through the gill-pore (p. branchialis). 



Now on trying to comprehend in one connected view the 

 results of our anatomic study of the Amphioxus, and com- 

 paring this conception with the known organism of Man, 

 the contrast between the two seems immense. In fact, the 

 most perfect vertebrate organism, represented by Man, is in 

 every respect so far above that lowest stage in which the 

 Lancelet remains, that it seems at first almost impossible to 

 place both organisms in the same main division of the 

 animal kingdom. And yet this classification is based on 

 unassailable grounds. For Man represents only a further 

 advance of the same vertebrate type, which in all its rudi- 

 mentary characters is unmistakably seen in the Amphioxus. 

 It is only necessary to recall the representation which has 

 been given of the ideal form of the Primitive Vertebrate 

 (p. 256) and to compare wit'i it the various lower stages of 

 development of the human embryo, in order to become 

 convinced of our near relationship to the Lancelet. 



It is true that a few zoologists have recently maintained 

 the paradoxical view that the Amphioxus is in no way 

 allied to Vertebrates. This was asserted especially by Karl 

 Semper and Robby Kossman, the same learned pair who 

 discovered in Goethe a narrow-minded uj)holder of the 

 constancy of species (see p. 91). But these gentlemen can 

 only have uttered this assertion in order, in the absence of 

 positive merits, to make their names known by negative 

 instances. One who at the present time maintains that 

 the Amphioxus is not allied to Vertebrates goes back a 



