138 EVOLUTION OF TO-DAY. 



of his research is to verify it. But we can hardly 

 believe that any false conclusion will be long enter- 

 tained. The naturalist is in search after truth, and 

 must at all events be considered an honest man. 

 Many of them would have been glad to disprove 

 this hypothesis if it had been possible. When, 

 therefore, all embryologists, who are the only ones 

 who can rightly interpret the evidence, are agreed 

 that, in spite of the complications arising from the 

 falsification of the embryological record, the three 

 series of historical lines obtained from paleontology, 

 classification, and embryology, are parallel, the can- 

 did mind must accept this verdict as one of the 

 well-attested facts of science. But it is a fact which 

 cannot from the very nature of the case be proved. 



Rmbryology as an Assistance in Classifying Animals. 



The extent to which this idea of embryology and 

 descent has forced its way into science, is indicated 

 by the modern method of classifying animals. 

 Early in the century Von Baer first proved that the 

 development of the individuals of the various groups 

 of animals was such that, as he says, the different 

 types have different types of development. Since 

 his time this conclusion has been subjected to rigid 

 examination in every direction, with the general 

 result of confirming it, except in the earliest stages. 

 But this confirmation has been by no means such as 

 Von Baer expected. Instead of leading to the es- 

 tablishment of types, it has broken them to pieces, 

 and has disclosed not four, but over twenty types of 

 development. The true result is that animals closely 



