GENERAL IGNORANCE OF THE HISTORY OF EVOLUTION. 3 



animal or plant. They are also ignorant of the fact that, 

 in the development of this egg, an organism is first formed 

 which is entirely different from the fully developed human 

 body, to which it bears no trace of resemblance. The 

 majority of "educated people" have never seen such a 

 human germ, or embryo, in the early stages of development,^ 

 nor are they aware that it is not at all different from those 

 of other animals. They do not know that, at a certain 

 period, this embryo has essentially the anatomical structure 

 of a Lancelet, later of a Fish, and in subsequent stages 

 those of Amphibian and Mammal forms ; and that in the 

 further evolution of these mammal forms those first appear 

 which stand lowest in the series, namely, forms allied to 

 the Beaked Animals (Ornithorhynchus) ; then those allied 

 to Pouched Animals (M arsupialia), which are followed by 

 forms most resembling Apes ; till at last the peculiar human 

 form is produced as the final result. These significant facts 

 are so little known that, when incidentally mentioned, they 

 are commonly doubted, or are even regarded as unfounded 

 inventions. Every one knows that the butterfly proceeds 

 from a pupa, the pupa from a caterpillar, to which it bears 

 no resemblance, and again the caterpillar from the egg of the 

 butterfly. But few, except those of the medical profession, 

 are aware that man, in the course of his individual evolution, 

 passes through a series of transformations no less astonishing 

 and remarkable than the well-known metamorphoses of the 

 butterfly. The mere tracing of this wonderful series of forms, 

 through which the human embryo passes in the course of its 

 development, is, of course, of great general interest. But our 

 understanding will be satisfied in a far hifdier degree, if we 

 refer these remarkable facts to their final causes, and recognize 



