1 88 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



from the ovum to the complete bodily structure is 

 a brief, condensed repetition of the long series of 

 forms which the animal ancestors of the said 

 organism, or the ancestral forms of the species, have 

 passed through from the earliest period of organic 

 life down to the present day." 



" On the strength of the biogenetic law," says 

 Weissman, " it could also be predicted that man, 

 in whom it is well known there are twelve pairs 

 of ribs, would in his earliest youth possess a 

 thirteenth pair, for the lower mammals have more 

 numerous ribs, and even our nearest relatives, the 

 anthropoid apes, the gorilla and chimpanzee, have 

 a thirteenth rib, though a very small one, and the 

 siamang has even a fourteenth. This prediction 

 has been verified by the examination of young 

 human embryos, in which a small thirteenth rib is 

 present, though it rapidly disappears." 



This seems hardly credible, yet so it seems to 

 be. We see in the embryo of man the gills of a 

 fish and the tail of a monkey ; and at a certain 

 stage of development we cannot distinguish 

 between the embryo of a man, a lizard, or a fish. 

 As the embryo grows, however, it develops dis- 

 tinctive features, and at birth it is indubitably 

 human, and with little likeness to any of the animal 

 kingdom except the apes. But the ape, man must 

 confess as cousin. 



