MARXISM AND DARWINISM. 



There is still, however, a slight resemblance in the 

 formation of the body, the skeleton and the nervous 

 system are still there. These features first disappear 

 when we turn from this main division, which embraces 

 all the vertebrates, and go to the molluscs (soft bodied 

 animals) or to the polyps. 



The entire animal world may thus be arranged 

 into divisions and subdivisions. Had every different 

 kind of animal been created entirely independent of 

 all the others, there would be no reason why such 

 orders should exist. There would be no reason why 

 there should not be mammals having six paws. We 

 would have to assume, then, that at the time of crea- 

 tion, God had taken Linnaeus' system as a plan and 

 created everything according to this plan. Happily 

 we have another way of accounting for it. The like- 

 ness in the construction of the body may be due to 

 a real family relationship. According to this concep- 

 tion, the conformity of peculiarities show how near 

 or remote the relationship is ; just as the resemblance 

 of brothers and sisters is greater than between remote 

 relatives. The animal classes were, therefore, not 

 created individually, but descended one from another. 

 They form one trunk that started with simple founda- 

 tions and which has continually developed; the last 

 and thin twigs are our present existing kinds. All 

 species of cats descend from a primitive cat, which 

 together with the primitive dog and the primitive bear, 

 is the descendant of some primitive type of rapacious 

 animal. The primitive rapacious animal, the primitive 

 hoofed animal and the primitive monkey have descend- 

 ed from some primitive mammal, etc. 



This theory of descent was advocated by Lamarck 

 and by Geoffrey St. Hilaire. It did not, however, meet 



