64 The Recapitulation Theory and Human Infancy 



ontogenetic stages, together with the comparative lack of it 

 between the human foetus and the adult condition among apes, 

 once more tends to illustrate the fallacy of the traditional view 

 of recapitulation and to yield added support to the substituted 

 conception of ontogenetic correspondence between descendants 

 and immediate ancestors. A study 2 of the degree of likeness 

 of a foetal gorilla to the human foetus made by the same writer 

 seems to agree with this view, although the author is more 

 interested in indicating the distinguishing characteristics. 

 Human traits are quite plainly manifested in early foetal stages. 3 



2. The Theory of Infancy. 



The life-history of the higher mammalia, like that of many 

 lower vertebrate and invertebrate groups, is characterized by a 

 period intervening between the close of embryogeny and the 

 full assumption of adult structures and functions. But whereas 

 larval forms are compelled by the necessities of their independent 

 life to provide themselves with food and protection during the 

 progress of their maturing, the corresponding period among the 

 higher mammalia is one in which the processes of growth and 

 increasing maturity are largely freed from such necessities by 

 the care and protection of a parent or parents. 



The term infancy has been applied to this period and an ex- 

 planation of it in terms of biological utility has become current, 

 associated especially with the name of the American philosopher 

 and historian, John Fiske. In the address on the subject printed 

 in " Century of Science" Fiske deals reminiscently with the incep- 

 tion of the theory. He recalls that the impression left upon the 

 minds of many from the reading of Darwin's "Descent of Man" 

 in 1871 was in some ways unsatisfying. Although Darwin's 

 work presented an impressive array of instances of similarity be- 

 tween man and the animals, still the method of the transition 

 to an essentially human condition was not clearly elucidated, 

 and there was a consequent confusion as to man's future destiny 

 as determined by the Darwinian factors of species evolution. 



\J 



Studies in Anthropology, 1904. 



'Ontogenetic likeness is affirmed in current statements of an "almost appalling 

 resemblance between man and the ape before birth," a resemblance which is 

 asserted to be much closer than that between adult man and adult ape. See Mitchell, 

 Childhood of Animals, pp. 7-9; von Buttel-Reepen, Man and his Forerunners, trans., 

 1913, p. 76. 



