CHAPTER n. 



THE SCAFFOLDING LEFT IN THE BODY. 



The spectacle which we have just witnessed is in- 

 visible, and therefore more or less unimpressive, ex- 

 cept to the man of science. Embryology works in the 

 dark. Requiring not only the microscope, but the 

 comparative knowledge of intricate and inaccessible 

 forms of life, its all but final contribution to the 

 theory of Evolution carries no adequate conviction to 

 the general mind. We must therefore follow the fort- 

 unes of the Body further into the open day. If the 

 Embryo in every changing feature of its growth con- 

 tains some reminiscence of an animal ancestry, the 

 succeeding stages of its development may be trusted 

 to carry on the proof. And though here the evidence 

 is neither so beautiful nor so exact, we shall find that 

 there is in the adult frame, and even in the very life 

 and movement of the new-born babe, a continuous 

 witness to the ancient animal strain. 



We are met, unfortunately, at the outset by one of 

 those curious obstacles to inquiry which have so often 

 barred the way of truth and turned discovery into 

 ridicule. It happens that the class of animals in 

 which Science, in the very nature of the case, is com- 



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