i8o THE POPULAR SCIBJYCU MONTHLY. 



parison to an upward-growing tree, tlie central axis of which, put 

 out lateral branches, would be more just, the central stalk of it 

 continuing to rise like the Lombardy poplar, and giving at its 

 apex man. 



Gentlemen, we have reached the end of our year's task. I have 

 explained at length the genealogy taught by M. Haeckel, and 

 have examined step by step the systems that have been proposed 

 to take its place. We have inquired whether the point of depart- 

 ure of the vertebrates has been from a soft-bodied worm, or from 

 a crustacean possessing an exterior skeleton. We have concluded 

 that our genealogy has passed by the ganoid fishes, to land in 

 what paleontologists call the labyrinthodonts, and what I have 

 sometimes designated as medium vertebrates. Thence the current 

 has carried us, not in the direction of the mammals, which, how- 

 ever, had already appeared in the Triassic age, but into the full 

 dominion of the reptiles, where we speculated concerning the 

 dinosauric origin of the monotremata or of some similar group. 

 There we met the aplacental marsupials, which we designated as 

 confirmed pro-mammals, and showed that, with some reserves — 

 of the cetaceans, for example — all the recent placental mammals, 

 and consequently ourselves, have issued from them. Here the 

 problem became complicated. To this point, except for the origin 

 itself of the mammals, our origin appeared clear. The lemurs 

 were already a cause of embarrassment. The uncertainties in- 

 crease respecting the immediate descent of man, although we have 

 at last freed ourselves from prejudices respecting it, and can dis- 

 cuss it coolly. Several opinions, each advanced by illustrious 

 authorities, confront us; I have expounded them impartially, 

 occasionally myself raising objections, as well as favorable argu- 

 ments. I have not done, and now you may say that I have some 

 secret preference — that you are convinced of it. 



There are for me only two doctrines to be considered — one 

 which derives man from the primary stock of the mammals in a 

 direct line and without the intervention of orders, not from a 

 mathematical point, but from that confused mass succeeding 

 the marsupials, in which the differentiations are indecisive and 

 tend toward the ungulates or toward man ; and the other one, 

 which accepts the branch or the order of the primates with 

 all its consequences — the lemurs or prosimians at the base, 

 then the monkeys or simians, and man all alone at the sum- 

 mit. 



Does one of these ennoble us more than the other ? Certainly. 

 The one that regards us as the dominant and central branch of 

 the mammalian tree, the continuation of the prototype in the 

 direct line, and which posits us as the crown of an evolution, the 

 point of departure of which is at the monera, is well calculated to 



