NA TURE 



121 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER i6, 1875 



HAECKEL'S HISTORY OF CREATION 



The History of Creation. From the German of Ernst 

 Haeckel, Professor in the University of Jena ; the 

 translation revised by Prof. E. Ray Lankester, M.A., 

 F.R.S., Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. In two 

 vols, crown 8vo, pp. 374,401 ; 15 lithographic plates, 

 woodcuts, and genealogical tables. (London : King 

 and Co., 1876.) 



TJAVING in a review of Prof. Haeckel's "An- 

 .n thropogenie " (see Nature, vol. xi. pp. 4, 22) 

 criticised both the manner and the substance of his 

 popular lectures on Evolution, it is unnecessary to repeat 

 what was then said. The " Schopfungsgeschichte " is 

 the earlier %vork of the two; it deals more with the 

 general question of the evolution of the Organic Kingdom 

 and less with its special application to Man ; its tone is 

 somewhat more moderate, and its statements and plates 

 are less highly coloured. But the object and the style of 

 both books are essentially the same, and they will be 

 praised or condemned together. 



Even in the short time since the delivery of the present 

 lectures several points have been established which neces- 

 sitate a modification of the views here expressed. The 

 origin of the urino-genital organs has been proved in the 

 classes as yet completely examined to be from the middle 

 layer of the embryo ; the embrjology of Amphioxys and 

 of MoUusca has been elucidated — by none more than 

 by the editor of this translation ; the placental classifica- 

 tion of Mammalia, never accepted by all zoologists, has 

 been almost reduced to the same rank as Waterhouse 

 and Owen's cerebral system ; the true nature of Lichens 

 has been cleared up, and relations between Algce and 

 Fungi have been established which disturb the roots of 

 the genealogical tree on Plate V. Moreover, Dr. Dohrn's 

 bold speculations lately published in his pamphlet " Uer 

 Ursprung der Wirbelthiere und das Princip des Func- 

 tionwechsels," have brought the question of degradation 

 of many lower forms as well as ot the genetic relations of 

 Vertebrata into a new phase. It is remarkable how little 

 the previously well-known instances of " degraded forms " 

 are considered in these lectures. Surely £ome of the 

 numerous twigs of the fifth, sixth, and fourteenth plates 

 might have been turned downwards. 



But whatever may be thought of the advantage of exhi- 

 biting together established truths and more or less erro- 

 neous speculations, in a dogmatic and controversial form, 

 before an uncritical audience, there is no question of the 

 value of these lectures to naturalists. They awaken 

 thought, provoke criticism, and stimulate inquiry. 



Turning from the subject-matter to the translation, we 

 must call it an exceedingly good one. No one who has 

 not tried knows the difficulty of presenting a continuous 

 work in a foreign language to an English reader so cis to 

 drop the idiom and yet retain its character. If a page of 

 the body of the work be compared with Prof. Haeckel's 

 own preface — written in very good English, but as a 

 foreigner writes — the reader will see at once how much 

 he is indebted to the lady who, we are told, made the 

 first draft, or to Mr. Lankester, who revised it. 

 Vol. xui.— No, 320 



The following passage is a fair specimen of the book : — 

 " Of the twelve species of men distinguished in the 

 following table [namely Papuan, Hottentot, Caffre, Negro, 

 Australian, Malay, Mongolian, Arctic, American, Dra- 

 vidan, Nubian, Mediterraneanese, beside hybrids], the four 

 lower species are characterised by the woolly nature of 

 the hair of their heads ; every hair is flattened like a 

 tape, and thus its section is oval. These four species of 

 woolly-haired men {Ulotrichi) we may reduce into two 

 groups, * tuft-haired ' and * fleecy-haired.' The hair on 

 the liead of tuft-haired men {Lophoconii)^ Papuans and 

 Hottentots, grows in unequally divided tufts. The woolly 

 hair of fleecy-haired men {Erttcomi) on the other hand, 

 in Caffres and Negroes, grows equally all over the skin 

 of the head. All Ulotrichi, or woolly-haired men, have 

 slanting teeth, and long heads, and the colour of their 

 skin, hair, and eyes, is always very dark. All are in- 

 habitants of the Southern Hemisphere : it is only in 

 Africa that they come north of the equator. They are, 

 on the whole, at a much lower stage of development, and 

 more like apes than most of the Lissotrichi, or straight- 

 haired men. The Ulotrichi are incapable of a true inner 

 culture and of a higher mental development, even under 

 the favourable conditions of adaptation now oiTered to 

 them in the United States of North America. No woolly- 

 haired nation has ever had an important history. 



"In the eight higher races of men which we comprise 

 as straight-haired {Lissotrichi), the hair of the head is 

 never actually woolly, although it is very much frizzled in 

 some individuals. Every separate hair is cylindrical (not 

 like a tape), and hence its section is circular (not oval). 



" The eight races of Lissotrichi may likewise be 

 divided into two groups — stiff- haired and curly-haired. 

 Stiff-haired men {Eutkycomi), the hair of whose heads is 

 quite smooth and straight, and not frizzled, include Aus- 

 tralians, Malays, Mongohans, Arctic tribes, and Americans. 

 Curly-haired men, on the other hand, the hair of whose 

 heads is more or less curly, and in whom the beard is 

 more developed than in all other species, include the 

 Dravidas, Nubians, and Mediterranean races."' 



The Caucasian, or to adopt Fr. Miiller's less recognised 

 name, the Mediterranean race, is divided into four sub- 

 races by the aid of language : these are (i) the Caucasians 

 proper of Georgia and the surrounding mountainous 

 district ; (2) the Basques ; (3) the Semitic nations, in- 

 cluding not only the Arabs and Jews (Eusemitcs), but 

 also the Hamitic or " Dyssemitic " Egyptians and Ber- 

 bers, with some other A'rican tribes ; (4) the great 

 Indo-Germanic or Aryan race, including Indo- Persians, 

 Greeks, Italians and Kelts, Sclavonians and Teutons. 

 The following passage concludes the chapter : — 



"The third and most important main branch of 

 primaeval Malays, the curly-haired races or Euplocomi, 

 liave probably left in the Dravidas of Hindostan and 

 Ceylon that species of man which differs least from the 

 common primary form of the Eiiplocomi. The principal 

 portion of the latter, namely, the Mediterranean species, 

 migrated from their primaeval home (Hindostan 1) west- 

 wards, and peopled the shores of the Mediterranean, 

 South-VVestem Asia, North Africa, and Europe. The 

 Nubians in the north-east of Africa must perhaps be re- 

 garded as an offshoot of the primaeval Semitic tribes who 

 migrated far across Central Africa almost to the western 

 shores. 



" The various branches of the Indo-Germanic race 

 have deviated furthest from the common primary form of 

 ape-like men. During classic antiquity and the middle 

 ages, the Romanic branch (the Grasco-Italo- Keltic group), 

 one of the two main branches of the Indo-Germanic 

 species, outstripped all other branches in the career of 

 civilisation ; but at present the same position is occupied 

 by the Germanic. Its chief representatives are the 



