THE DESCENT OF THE PRIMATES 



NEW FACTS AND OLD PEOBLEMS 



For a student of natural history, be he a zoolo- 

 gist or a botanist, the examination of the external 

 characters of animals or plants is generally the 

 first step by which he acquaints himself with the 

 objects of his study. Next comes the investiga- 

 tion of their internal fabric, of their organs and 

 of their tissues ; finally, the yet more laborious 

 unravelling of their development. The slow and 

 numerous steps by which these organs and tissues 

 have come into being are always identical ; they 

 lead on from a simple fecundated egg-cell to the 

 complexity of the adult animal or plant. In this 

 way embryology throws a welcome light upon 

 questions which anatomy alone would not enable 

 him to solve. When once he has thus become 

 thoroughly familiar with a considerable number 

 of facts concerning the particular object of his 

 researches, he extends these to other objects, the 

 final goal of his life being to ol.)tain a glimpse of 



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