CHAPTER III 



GREAT STEPS IN EVOLUTION 



Evolution a great Succession of Achievements — The Begin- 

 nings — Protoplasm and Organisms — Characteristic Fea- 

 tures of Living Creatures — Origins among the Protozoa — 

 The Protists— Plants and Animals— The Cell-Cycle— The 

 Beginning of a Body — Beginning of Death — The Origin 

 of Sex — The Beginnings of Brains — The Beginnings of 

 Behaviour — Progress along many Lines — The Ascent of 

 Vertebrates — The Ascent of Man — Evolution as Retro- 

 gressive — Deterioration and Parasitism. 



Evolution a Great Succession of 

 Achievements. — It is impossible to appre- 

 ciate our own human position aright unless 

 we see it in the light of history. We must 

 think of the distant stone ages — when man 

 made weapons of chipped flints and then of 

 polished stone; of the prehistoric metal 

 ages that followed — when man made weapons 

 and utensils of copper, of bronze, and then 

 of iron; and of the gradual growth of civil- 

 ization along many lines. We are so famil- 

 iar with the result that we are apt not to 

 think enough of the long succession of achieve- 

 ments — each a great event in human history. 

 It is one of the uses of a museum, provided 

 it be on evolutionary lines, like the Pitt 



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