THE HISTORY OF LIFE 211 



in his early life-history had gill-like formations like a 

 fish. The embryo of man in its early stages cannot be 

 distinguished from thafc of a fish, salamander, tortoise, 

 chick, pig, calf, or rabbit. 1 



At one stage of our life history we had a true tail 

 double the length of our legs. 2 



And there is now abundant evidence to show that 

 the present human civilization has arisen from slow 

 alterations in the organic whole the human being 

 having inherited certain complex structures from the 

 parent, hence the hereditary qualities of the being 

 inheritance, which qualities have been slowly altered 

 through the individual's external conditions by a pro- 

 cess called adaptation, and this result is mostly obtained 

 by what is now known as the law of the struggle for 

 existence. 9 



1 For striking illustrations see " The Evolution of Man," Prof. 

 Ernst Haeckel, 1883, vol. i. p. 362, plates vi., vii 



2 Idem, vol. i. p. 371. 



3 The stu.dents of these great factors in human progress cannot do 

 better than study that most interesting work "The History of 

 Creation," by Prof. Ernst Haeckel, from which we have so often 

 quoted. 



