82 ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



to omit a brief reference to the embryological evi- 

 dence 1 recently accumulated. Some decades ago, 

 very great stress was laid upon the evidence afforded 

 by the study of individual development in favour 

 of the theory of racial development. It was some- 

 what too roundly declared that the history of the 

 individual is always a recapitulation of the history 

 of the race. Subsequent work has shown that 

 this recapitulation is very often not nearly so com- 

 plete as had been alleged. It is constantly found 

 that whole stages which must have played a promi- 

 nent and lengthy part in the racial history are 

 hardly represented, if at all, in the development of 

 the individual. Hence some biologists, who are old 

 enough to compare the facts now known with the 

 too comprehensive assertions made in their youth, 

 are inclined to say that too much stress has been 

 laid on the embryological argument, and, indeed, 

 that the " recapitulation theory " is only a metaphor, 

 and a poor one at that. 2 Nevertheless, there remain 

 thousands — tens of thousands — of embryological 

 facts which are intelligible only on this theory; 

 and, in my opinion, the embryological argument for 

 organic evolution is stronger than it ever was. Let 

 us grant that, in any particular species, certain 

 stages of the racial history have little to represent 

 them in the hitherto observed facts of the individual 

 history. We do not maintain that the recapitula- 

 tion is exact or complete ; still less that the length 

 and salience of the stages in the individual develop- 



1 This has already been alluded to in the second chapter. 



2 Cf. Chalmers Mitchell in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (tenth 

 edition). 



