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instanced, but this is a consequence of the newness 

 of the science of embryology, and of our ignorance 

 of details which shall be disclosed by future re- 

 search, rather than of the non-existence of such 

 recapitulatory illustrations. Nor is it necessary that 

 we should be able to trace such parallelisms in all 

 cases. The countless numbers which embryologists 

 have already pointed out are abundantly ample for 

 the purpose of the argument in question. 



Meaning of Recapitulation. 



The marvelous coincidences and analogies we 

 have just considered, and it were easy to add 

 others, suggest questions that clamor for an an- 

 swer. Why, then, is it, that every complex organ- 

 ism thus epitomizes the history of its ancestors ; 

 that in its embryonic life it exhibits a series of 

 forms characteristic of organisms lower in the series 

 of which it is a member? Many of the stages 

 through which it passes in the course of its develop- 

 ment have no adaptation either to its embryonic or 

 to its adult condition. Wherefore, then, the reason 

 of the existence of these curious stages? 



On the special creation hypothesis they admit of 

 no rational explanation whatever. "What," queries 

 Mr. Lewes, " should we say to an architect who was 

 unable, or being able, was obstinately unwilling to 

 erect a palace, except by first using his materials in 

 the shape of a hut, then pulling it down, and re- 

 building them as a cottage, then adding story to 

 story and room to room, not with any reference to 

 the ultimate purposes of the palace, but wholly with 



