8 THE LIVING WORLD. 



appearance of the ancestors which it represents. 

 Size, habits, shape, are entirely unknown, and fre- 

 quently we cannot tell whether the early animals 

 possessed a skeleton or a protective armor, and 

 numerous other points are left entirely without 

 even a suggestion. Embryology does give us gen- 

 eral points of the fundamental structure of the 

 early types, does give us clearly an outline of 

 the changes through which animals passed in their 

 early history, does give us an epitome of the early 

 development and growth of living things. Such a 

 history is much like a history of mankind which 

 should give an outline of the development of social 

 relations and political institutions, which should tell 

 that the family relation was superseded by that of 

 the tribe, this by the absolute monarchy and the 

 constitutional monarchy, and finally by the govern- 

 ment by the people. Such a history, dwelling more 

 or less at length upon these various forms of govern- 

 ment and showing their relations as well as their 

 modes of origin from each other, would be much 

 like the history which the study of embryology gives 

 us of the early life. A history giving no names, no 

 ideas of nations, we should regard as a poor history 

 of nations and people, but it might be a fair history 

 of mankind in general. So embryology deals in 

 types and their relations and origins, but tells very 

 little of actual animals. In dealing with a past 

 ancestral stage thus represented, we do not have the 

 same sort of satisfaction as in handling a fossil. We 

 do not know just what sort of an animal was really 

 represented by the stage in question, but we do 



