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CHAPTER VI. 

 THE EVOLUTION THEORY. 



WHEN we review the history of research in the last two 

 centuries we see that there are two opposite views : on one side 

 that of Cuvier and his school who try to prove the immutability 

 of the species; on the other, Lamarck, Geoffrey St. Hilaire, 

 Charles Darwin and their supporters who declare a species to 

 be an artificial arrangement carried into nature by man, and 

 proclaim the descent of all living beings, man included, from 

 the simplest organisms by gradual changes. 



Before we examine the different theories which undertake to 

 explain the causes of this assumed evolution of the organisms, 

 we may suitably enquire whether such change of species and 

 progressive development has actually taken place ; in other 

 words, whether the Evolution Theory can be proved. 



Let us go back to those far-distant earth-periods from which 

 have come to us the first vestiges of organic life, but let us also 

 moderate our expectations, for during the many cataclysms to 

 which the earth's crust has been exposed most germs of life 

 have been destroyed without leaving a trace behind. We can 

 see in our cemeteries how rapidly decay takes place ; frequently 

 after a few decades a few bones are the only signs left to show 

 that once a human corpse was here committed to its final rest ; 

 very soon these too will crumble into dust. 



Thus it seems almost miraculous that so many prehistoric 

 organisms have in the form of fossils been preserved for our 

 days. It is obvious that the older the strata are and the more 

 remote their date in the history of the earth, the rarer become 

 the fossils until at last they cease altogether. It is further clear 

 that almost without exception only those animals were preserved 

 that had a firm endo-skeleton, like the vertebrates ; strong armour 



