THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



the details of the organs, from that of the anthropoid 

 apes. The comparative histology of the brain especially 

 showed that this is also true of the brain, the real organ 

 of mind. From comparative embryology we learned 

 that man develops from a simple ovum just like the 

 anthropoid ape; in fact, that it is almost impossible to 

 distinguish between the ape and the human embryo 

 even at a late stage of development. Comparative 

 animal chemistry explained that the chemical compounds 

 which build up our organ's, and the conversions of energy 

 which accompany its metabolism, resemble those in the 

 other vertebrates. Comparative physiology taught us 

 that all man's vital functions — nutrition and reproduc- 

 tion, movement and sensation — can be traced to the 

 same physical laws in man as in all the other verte- 

 brates. Above all, the comparative and experimental 

 study of the sense-organs and the various parts of the 

 brain showed that these organs of the mind work in the 

 same way in man as in the other primates. Modem 

 paleontology taught that man is, it is true, more than 

 a hundred thousand years old, but only appeared on 

 earth towards the close of the Tertiary Period. Pre- 

 historic research and comparative ethnology have shown 

 that civilized nations were preceded by older and lower 

 races, and tliese by savages, which have a close bodily 

 and mental affinity to the apes. Finally, the reformed 

 theory of descent (1859) enabled us to unite the chief 

 results of the various branches of anthropological study, 

 and explain them phylogenetically by the development 

 of man from other primates (anthropoid apes, cynoceph- 

 ali, lemures, etc.). By this means a new and monistic 

 basis was provided for modern anthropology; the posi- 

 tion assigned to man in nature by dualistic metaphysics 

 was shown to be utterly untenable. I have attempted 

 in the last edition of my Anthropogeny (of which an 

 English edition is in preparation) to combine all these 



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