236 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



pedigree of the Primates, from the earliest eocene 

 Lemures up to man, fall within the tertiary period 

 and are perfectly plain. There is no essential link 

 still missing. The phyletic completeness of the 

 race of Primates from the oldest Lemures to man 

 is an historical fact.' l 



These words stand here, and Haeckel himself 

 had the last sentence printed in italics. This is 

 the language that he uses in addressing the general 

 public. I must acknowledge that in many places 

 he has modified his statements, especially in the last 

 few years but, nevertheless, what I said before 

 still holds good. 



With regard to the biogenetic principle, Dr. 

 Schmidt-Jena accused me of having reproduced it 

 in an incomplete form, but I was obliged to be brief, 

 and to content myself with remarking shortly that 

 the repetition of the evolution of the race was 

 influenced by adaptation. Dr. Schmidt-Jena will 

 find the matter discussed at greater length on 

 p. 458 of the last edition of my Biology and the 

 Theory of Evolution. I have there distinguished 



1 That this quotation is perfectly accurate can be proved by any one 

 who takes the trouble to refer to the passage. Moreover, it is obvious 

 that in it Haeckel lays down the pedigree of the Primates ' up to man ' as 

 an historical fact. Nevertheless, a reporter of my closing address accused 

 me, in the Berliner Morgenzeitung of February 20th, 1907, of having falsified 

 the quotation. He declared that, in quoting this passage, I passed off 

 what Haeckel had really said about the pedigree of apes as being his 

 teaching about the pedigree of man. Either the reporter was not aware 

 that he, as man, belonged to the Primates (according to Haeckel), or for 

 other motives, which will not bear criticism, he chose simply to impute 

 falsification to me. 



