V. 



The Recapitulation Theory. 



A REJOINDER. 



IF the value of a theory is to be measured by the number and the 

 extent of the papers written, and by the amount of work done 

 under its inspiration, then the value of the Recapitulation Theory is 

 indeed great : but there is always room for the doubt as to whether an 

 equal amount of work would not have been done without that inspiration ; 

 whether, for instance, Hyatt, Buckman, Jackson, and Beecher would 

 not have published researches as great and as brilliant as those re- 

 ferred to by Mr. Bather in his article on " The Recapitulation Theory 

 in Palaeontology" (p. 281), even if they had been inspired by some- 

 thing less fantastic than the theory in question. 



In attacking this theory, however, I was fully conscious of the 

 enormous amount of work done under its inspiration ; and in attempt- 

 ing to destroy the theory, I was fully alive to the possible effect upon 

 the work of the future. I look upon the loss of all the " recapitula- 

 tion " literature with perfect equanimity — nay more, I look forward 

 with hope for the time when men shall cease to occup}' the pages 

 of our scientific journals with controversies as to whether " the 

 ancestor "" of the vertebrates was an ascidian, polychaete, nemertine, 

 leech, turbellarian, sea-anemone, sponge, spider, crustacean, Balano- 

 glossus, echinoderm or other recent animal of the embryos of which 

 the controversialists happen to have been cutting sections. I do not 

 think that if the writings thus briefly catalogued had been written 

 without the " inspiration " of the Recapitulation Theory, they would 

 have been less \aluable. The little I do know about the psychology 

 of " dominant ideas " leads me, indeed, to believe that the investi- 

 gations would have been carried out, not only more fully, but also 

 with far less error of observation. Under the influence of a dominant 

 idea, men see what does not exist, and are blind to what lies before 

 them ; and what is even worse, what little they do see of the things 

 before them is seen distorted. Whether the dominant idea be a true 

 idea or a false one, if dominant, it is almost certain to lead to profound 

 error. When first the idea of evolution gained a hold over men's 

 minds through the influence of Darwin's and Wallace's theory of 

 Natural Selection, it suddenly de\eloped into a dominant idea in the 



