CREATION BY EVOLUTION 



development of structures ; indeed, function and structure are 

 merely different aspects of life. All the general functions 

 of living things are present in germ cells. In its growth every 

 egg or sperm cell takes in nourishment, which it transforms 

 into its own protoplasm; it divides at intervals and thus 

 reproduces; it is sensitive, or capable of responding to stimuli. 

 These are the fundamental functions of all living things, and 

 every germ cell has them, but as development advances each 

 of these functions becomes more specialized and more per- 

 fect. Nutrition, reproduction, sensation, which are all pres- 

 ent in the egg cell, become, in the course of development, 

 localized in cells specialized for each of these functions. 

 But just as in the development of structures new parts, which 

 were not present in the germ, appear by a process of "crea- 

 tive synthesis," so new functions appear in the course of 

 development, which are not merely sorted out of the general 

 functions that were present at the beginning but are created 

 by the combination and interaction of parts and functions 

 already present. In this way the highest and most marvellous 

 functions develop out of egg cells — even the special senses, 

 instincts, and higher psychical faculties of animals and man. 

 All are products of development or evolution — that is, they 

 have come as a result of new combinations and transforma- 

 tions of the functions present in germ cells. Every step in 

 this process is natural; yet that a complex animal, even a 

 man, with all his godlike faculties, can develop out of a 

 germ cell is surely the climax of all wonders! 



The Recapitulation Theory 



At the beginning of the nineteenth century the belief was 

 general that higher animals pass through stages in their 

 development that correspond to the adult condition of lower 

 animals. In 1828 von Baer, "the father of comparative 



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