CONTENTS 



PAGE 



BOOK II 



THE PATH OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



PART I. The supposed law that degeneration retraces the 



steps of progress . . . . . . 175 



Chapter I. The path of degeneration in biology . . 178 



Section I. The path of degeneration in animals . 179 



1. Morphology and embryology ; the law of recapitu- 

 lation. 2. Degeneration of the third eye in lizards. 

 3. Degeneration of the organs of sight in deep-sea 

 Crustacea. 4. Atrophy of the branchial vessels in 

 man . . . . . . . 179 



Section II. The path of degeneration in plants. . 192 



1. Rarity of cases of recapitulation in the organ- 

 ogeny of leaves (Vicia, Acacia with phyllodes). 

 2. Organogeny of flowers (Brassica oleracea var. 

 Botrytis). 3. Progressive degeneration of the pro- 

 thallus in phanerogams . . . . 192 



Chapter II. The path of degeneration in sociology . - . 205 



1. Investigation of facts ..... 205 



1. Tithings, hundreds and counties in England. 2. 

 Order of elimination of various racial elements in 

 a country. 3. The degenerative evolution of poli- 

 tical organizations. 4. Degeneration in monetary 

 systems. 5. Degenerative adaptation in colonial 

 legislation. 6. Degenerative evolution of the cor- 

 porations of Western Flanders . . . 207 

 2. A criticism of the supposed inverse path of degenera- 

 tion V . . . . . 217 



PART II. The irreversibility of degenerative evolution. . 221 



Chapter I. Do institutions or organs which have disappeared 



reappear? ...... 222 



Section I. Disappeared organs .... 222 



1. Plants . . . . . . 222 



2. Animals. Teratology of the horse, Hypertrichosis, 

 etc. Swimming limbs in Stomatopoda and De- 

 capod a Macroura ..... 223 



Section II. Disappeared institutions . . . 227 



