EVIDENCE FROM EMBRYOLOGY 61 



logical work had fallen. ' As there were no generally 

 accepted canons of interpretation for the facts of 

 embryological development, different writers inter- 

 preted these facts in the most divergent and con- 

 tradictory manner, resulting in a chaotic confusion, 

 which led to a strong reaction against the whole 

 method, though there can be little doubt that this 

 reaction has gone too far. 



"It must be evident to any candid observer, not 

 only that the embryological method is open to 

 criticism, but that the whole fabric of morphology, 

 so far as it rests upon embryological evidence, stands 

 in urgent need of reconstruction. For twenty years 

 embryological research has been largely dominated 

 by the recapitulation theory; and unquestionably 

 this theory has illuminated many dark places and 

 has solved many a perplexing problem that without 

 its aid might have remained a standing riddle to the 

 pure anatomist. But while fully recognizing the real 

 and substantial fruits of that theory, we should not 

 close our eyes to the undeniable fact that it, like 

 many another fruitful theory, has been pushed be- 

 yond its legitimate limits. It is largely to an over- 

 weening confidence in the validity of the embryo- 

 logical evidence that we owe the vast number of the 

 elaborate hypothetical phylogenies which confront 

 the modern student in such bewildering confusion. 

 The inquiries of such a student regarding the origin 

 of any of the great principal types of animals involve 

 him in a labyrinth of speculation and hypothesis in 



