78 



interest in the argument from embryology, 

 especially when scientists themselves seem to 

 be abandoning it as valueless. 



Let us, however, try to get the force of 

 Father Wasmann's argument ; and perhaps we 

 can obtain some idea of its value and efficacy 

 more readily by taking one from the ''number 

 of similar instances" of the biogonetic princi 

 ple which he cites, rather than Father 

 Wasmann's own instance. As one of those 

 instances, Father Wasmann mentions the case 

 of the whalebone-whale, which is one of the 

 stock arguments of evolutionists in behalf of 

 the biogenetic principle. We shall try to fol 

 low Father Wasmann's argument in this case, 

 which he accepts as a "clue" and an "indica 

 tion where to seek the ancestors of the race"; 

 but first a brief digression may be permitted. 

 Whether the principle of evolution has or has 

 not been at work in other directions there is 

 one place at least where it seems to be a mark 

 ed success the evolution of error. Indeed, 

 so successful has it been in this department of 

 knowledge that it has actually differentiated a 

 new spick-and-span species of fallacy and de- 



