AND THE APE THEORY. 41 



undergo any further essential modifications ; while the 

 greater number of them are still in an unfixed state, 

 and one systematist tries to improve them in this 

 direction, and another in that. 



The following phylogenetic hypotheses are held to 

 be almost certain : The descent of many-celled ani- 

 mals from single-celled, of the Medusae from the 

 hydroid Polyps, of the jointed from the unjointed 

 worms, of the sucking from the gnawing insects, of 

 amphibious animals from fishes, of birds from reptiles, 

 of the placental mammalia from the marsupials, and 

 so forth. I personally consider the descent of man 

 from the apes as equally certain; nay, I regard this 

 most important and pregnant genealogical hypothesis 

 as one of those which, up to the present time, rest on 

 the best empirical basis. 



Huxley, in particular, fifteen years ago, in his 

 celebrated "Man's Place in Nature," 1863, so ad- 

 mirably proved the undoubted " descent of man from 

 apes," and so clearly discussed all the relations 

 that had to be taken into consideration, that very 

 little was left to others to do. The result of 

 his comparative morphological investigations is con- 

 tained in this proposition " If we take up a system 

 of organs, be it which we will, the comparison of its 

 modifications throughout the series of apes leads us to 

 the same conclusion : that in every single visible 



