EVOLUTION IN NATURAL SCIENCE 15 



In the case of the species of the same genus, 

 the genera of the same family, and often for the 

 families of the same order, even for orders of the 

 same class, the probability is in support of evolution, 

 and we meet with actual points of contact proving 

 the relationship between the various forms. But 

 the higher we ascend in the systematic categories, 

 and the more closely we approach the great chief 

 types of the animal world, the scantier becomes 

 the evidence ; in fact, it fails so completely that we 

 are finally forced to acknowledge, that the assump- 

 tion of a monophyletic evolution of the whole king- 

 dom of organic life is a delightful dream without 

 any scientific support. The same may be said of 

 the assumed monophyletic evolution of the whole 

 animal kingdom on the one hand, and of the whole 

 vegetable kingdom on the other, from one primary 

 form respectively. 



We have no scientific evidence to support these 

 assumptions, such as we have for the relation- 

 ship of species, genera and families, and we cannot 

 prove anything without evidence. 



Some one may charge me with having simply 

 given utterance to Fleischmann' s views. No, I do 

 not follow Fleischmann in this respect, for he 

 goes too far in his opposition to the theory of evolu- 

 tion, but he is right in saying that it is impossible 

 to trace back the chief types of the animal kingdom to 

 one primitive form. All attempts in this direction 

 have failed. Fleischmann is not alone in making 



