gen, etc., in certain proportions albumen should result, is a 

 process which in its essence is as incomprehensible as that 

 a living cell should arise from a certain organization of dif- 

 ferent albumina." Then the speaker is inevitably led to 

 speak of the doctrine of Descent and Darwinism. 



In the first place he declares definitely that ontogeny 

 alone, i. e., the development of the individual being, is 

 '■'capable of a direct scientific investigation." On the other 

 hand we move in the domain of hypotheses in dealing with 

 the further question: "How have the species of organisms 

 living to-day originated in the course of the world's his- 

 tory?" This is a very valuable admission in view of Haeck- 

 el's dogmatic assertion that the descent of man from the 

 ape is a "certain historical fact." Very moderate and per- 

 tinent are also the further words of the speaker: "Of 

 course, a philosophically trained investigator will regard it 

 as axiomatic that the organisms which inhabit our earth 

 to-day did not exist in their present form in earlier periods 

 of the earth and that they had to pass through a process 

 of development, beginning with the simplest forms." 



"But in the attempt to outline in detail the particular 

 form in which a species of animals of our day existed in re- 

 mote antiquity, we lose the safe ground of experience. For 

 out of the countless millions of organisms, that lived in earl- 

 ier periods of the earth, the duration of which is measured 

 by millions of years, only scanty skeleton remains have by 

 way of exception been preserved in a fossil state. From these 

 naturally but a very imperfect and hypothetical representa- 

 tion can be formed of the soft bodies with which they were 



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