THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



human beings at a certain stage is likewise pro- 

 vided with traces of gills on its neck and with 

 finlike disks in the places where arms and legs 

 develop later on. This is as universally accepted 

 as the fact first stated by Copernicus that the 

 earth revolves around the sun. No man who has 

 the least respect for truth can deny this fact. 

 Nevertheless, there are people who find this very 

 plain fact of embryology very little to their lik- 

 ing, and who therefore frequently attempt to 

 brand it as a "falsification." But every university 

 text-book in the hands of every student of medi- 

 cine, which is used as a basis for the state exami- 

 nations, contains a statement of this simple fact, 

 and if any student were to deny it during his 

 examination he would be severely reprimanded 

 by the state examiner. People who still refer to 

 such undeniable and scientifically recognized 

 facts as falsifications place themselves outside 

 the pale of all moral premises and scientific re- 

 search. 



It is a fact, then, that man is likewise de- 

 scended from the fish. 



But, if we ask how it happened and what were 

 the external causes which transformed in the 

 far off primitive days a fish breathing through 

 gills into a land animal breathing through lungs, 



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