THE TRIUMPH OF LHE 



paratus I Life has placed animak upon the land. 

 it has sifted out of all its wealth of experiments 

 ilie higlily-centralized stage of the spinal mar- 

 row and vertebral animal as the best adapted to 

 land conditions. While the other land experi- 

 ments in the animal kingdom did not exceed 

 certain very small sizes — among the longest of 

 which were a few earthworms, none remain save 

 the very beginnings of the insects and spiders, 

 and the land snails — with the vertebrates for the 

 first time, life was fortunate enough to rise to 

 a mass in size such as was formerly possible only 

 in the water. In the ocean the vertebrates, even 

 in primitive times, had reached the size of the 

 giant shark. Descendants of such sharks have 

 crept like monster fishes upon the shores, have 

 developed four legs, and with the neck loosely 

 jointed to the trunk have raised the head free. 

 So at last the reptile type, the primitive form of 

 the lizard, arose. These lizards boldly took the 

 great mass of the sharks out upon terra firma. 

 Indeed, they exceeded all animals that had pre- 

 viously existed of this fonn. They rose to the 

 size of moving houses. We must consider the 

 difference in the elements. How the fish with 

 its perfect form can shoot through the water, 

 a creature for which gravity has been complete- 

 ly abolished. Now, however, the problem arose 

 of how to balance a body one hundred and fif- 

 teen feet long on legs and to move it over the 

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