192 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



This statement of Dr. Schmidt- Jena's is 

 not accurate. When expounding the bio- 

 genetic principle (see p. 58, etc.), I said nothing 

 at all about an exact repetition of the phylo- 

 genesis in the ontogenesis. These words were 

 only used later (p. 70) as an argumentum ex 

 absurdo against the descent of man from apes. 

 But on this subject I may refer to my closing 

 speech. It would be interesting to learn from 

 Dr. Schmidt-Jena, by what theory of Caeno- 

 genesis, or ' subsequent interference with 

 evolution owing to adaptation,' he would 

 account for the fact that young apes bear a 

 much more marked facial resemblance to man 

 than old apes do. This resemblance cannot 

 possibly be due to subsequent adaptation, 

 therefore it forms a good argumentum ad 

 hominem against the direct descent of man 

 from apes. 



Dr. Schmidt-Jena explained further that Haeckel 

 had made a very important addition to his law, 

 viz. that the repetition of the history of the race in the 

 evolution of the individual is affected by the action 

 of heredity and adaptation. He maintained that 

 Haeckel had shown that, strictly speaking, no 

 phylogenetic stage could be reproduced in the 

 ontogenesis, because inevitably adaptation to 

 special circumstances gives the evolution of a germ 

 another tendency than we should expect, if we were 



