THE KINSHIP OF LIFE. 4! 



plained ; special creation can not account for it. Going 

 still further back in the history of the development of 

 the mammals, the record shows that both these and the 



reptiles must have arisen from fish-like 

 Gill slits in man. , i L i_ i_ j u 



forms which breathed water by means 



of gills. To this embryology offers ample support. In 

 the embryos of reptiles, birds, and mammals, soon after 

 the heart is formed, there appear on the sides of the 

 neck openings which in both origin and structure re- 

 semble the gill arches of fishes, and through these gills 

 the blood flows exactly as it does in the fish. Later the 

 gill arches close up, the blood takes other courses, and 

 of all the complicated apparatus which persists through- 

 out life in the fish there remain only a few obscure 

 traces in the adult reptile, bird, or mammal." 



This fact must show that the higher mammals have 

 had a water-breathing, fish-like ancestry. Only the force 

 of heredity can explain the existence and retention of 

 these structures. On any other supposition an explana- 

 tion is inconceivable. 



Dr. Kingsley further says : " These examples are but 

 a tithe of the evidence; thousands of pages might be 

 written detailing similar facts not only in connection 

 with the embryology of the vertebrates but of all groups 

 of animals and plants. Every case would lead us to the 

 same conclusions, but except for the special student of 

 biology they would have but little interest. Each in- 

 stance would be inexplicable except upon an evolu- 

 tionary basis, but, if one adopt the hypothesis that the 

 history of the individual is an epitome of that of the 

 race, all is at once as clear as day. Special creation is 

 utterly inadequate to explain embryological problems ; 

 evolution leaves no room for doubt or question." 



The difficulties and objections to the theory of de- 

 scent will be found in the Origin of Species, stated by 



