go Scientific Sophisms. 



these apparently simple organisms is just as far 

 removed from inorganic matter as is the proto- 

 plasm of the lion or the eagle. 



Of another important group of "ancestors," 

 the Gastreadcty we are told that it " must have 

 existed in the primordial time, and must have 

 included amongst its members the direct ances- 

 tors of man." No one ever saw a single in- 

 dividual of this group ; that is a matter of 

 course. It is equally a matter of course that no 

 traces are to be found of its existence. But 

 the "certain proof" 1 of that existence is sup- 

 posed to be found in the fact that the Am- 

 phioxus, at one period of its development, 

 presejits a type similar to that of of what? 

 Of the imaginary Gastraea whose existence had 

 to be proved ! Our ancestors, the worms, come 

 next ; and, like their predecessors, they " must 

 have existed," because without them we should 

 be at a loss how to derive higher worms, and 

 the articulata generally. 



Professor Huxley, summarizing and review- 

 ing this volume of Haeckel's, is careful to 

 express his "entire concurrence with the general 

 tenor and spirit of the work," and his "high 

 estimate of its value." 3 Of the particular por- 



1 " Naturliche Schopfungsgeschic^te," p. 581. 



* " Critiques and Addresses." Macmillan, 1873, p. 319. 



