LECTURE IV 



THE ARGUMENT FROM EMBRYOLOGY 



The last lecture was devoted to the consideration of 

 the evidence afforded by fossils in regard to the 

 theory of Evolution, and may be summed up as 

 follows : — The evidence afforded by fossils is not 

 so complete as we could wish, but we are able to 

 point out the causes which render it difficult or 

 impossible for continuous series to be preserved ; 

 fossils give no evidence against Evolution, and 

 some remarkable series have already been unearthed, 

 such as those of the Horse and Paludina, which 

 would be unintelligible without Evolution ; the 

 evidence is steadily increasing in amount and im- 

 portance ; and the evidence of fossils is a dis- 

 proof of catastrophism. 



We are now concerned with the most recent of 

 biological sciences. Embryology, or the Science of 

 Development, is prominently associated with the 

 names of Von Baer, 1792-1881, and Balfour, 1851- 

 18.82. It is utterly vain in one lecture to give any 

 idea of the extraordinary multitude of facts accu- 

 mulated within the last quarter of a century, or of 

 the numerous and fascinating theories to which these 

 facts have given origin ; it is here merely as bearing 



