352 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



existence as little probable, as it was thirty years 

 ago, if indeed it is not less probable. 



But granting that the search for the link connect- 

 ing man with the ape has so far been futile; admit- 

 ting, with Virchow, that " the future discovery of this 

 pro-anthropos is highly improbable ;" may we not, 

 nevertheless, believe, as a matter of theory, that 

 there has been such a link, and that, corporeally, man 

 is genetically descended from some unknown species 

 of ape or monkey ? Analogy and scientific consist- 

 ency, we are told, require us to admit that man's 

 bodily frame has been subject to the same law of 

 Evolution, if an Evolution there has been, as has 

 obtained for the inferior animals. There is nothing 

 in biological science that would necessarily exempt 

 man's corporeal structure from the action of this law. 

 Is there, then, anything in Dogma or sound meta- 

 physics, which would make it impossible for us, salra 

 fide, to hold a view which has found such favor 

 with the great majority of contemporary evolution- 

 ists ? 



Mfvart's Theory. 



It was the distinguished biologist and philoso- 

 pher, St. George Mivart, who first gave a categorical 

 answer to these questions in his interesting little 

 work, " The Genesis of Species," published nearly a 

 quarter of a century ago. He contended that it is 

 not " absolutely necessary to suppose that any action 

 different in kind took place in the production of 

 man's body, from that which took place in the pro- 

 duction of the bodies of other animals, and of the 



