"THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES." 327 



termine the nature of the process, in each case, with a 

 degree of minuteness and accuracy which is truly aston- 

 ishing to those whose memories carry them back to the 

 beginnings of modern histology. And the results of 

 these embryological investigations are in complete har- 

 mony with the requirements of the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion. The first beginnings of all the higher forms of 

 animal life are similar, and however diverse their adult 

 conditions, they start from a common foundation. More- 

 over, the process of development of the animal or the 

 plant from its primary egg or germ is a true process of 

 evolution a progress from almost formless to more or 

 less highly organised matter, in virtue of the properties 

 inherent in that matter. 



To those who are familiar with the process of devel- 

 opment, all d priori objections to the doctrine of biologi- 

 cal evolution appear childish. Any one who has watched 

 the gradual formation of a complicated animal from the 

 protoplasmic mass, which constitutes the essential ele- 

 ment of a frog's or a hen's egg, has had under his eyes 

 sufficient evidence that a similar evolution of the whole 

 animal world from the like foundation is, at any rate, 

 possible. 



Yet another product of investigation has largely con- 

 tributed to the removal of the objections to the doctrine 

 of evolution current in 1859. It is the proof afforded 

 by successive discoveries that Mr. Darwin did not over- 

 estimate the imperfection of the geological record. No 

 more striking illustration of this is needed than a com- 



