ON OUR PRESENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 463 



ontogeny and phylogeny founded upon progressive inheritance, between 

 the history of the development of the germ of the individual and the 

 history of the development of his ancestral stock. In the latter, I, at 

 that time, distinguished ten different principal degrees within the 

 vertebrate stock. I dwelt especially, however, upon the logical con- 

 nection between the evolution of man and the theory of modification by 

 descent; if the latter is true it gives absolute validity to the former^ 

 "The proposition that man has developed from the lower vertebrates 

 and, indeed, immediately from the true apes is a special deduction 

 which must necessarily result from the general induction made by the 

 law of the theory of descent." I showed the further development and 

 results of this conception in the various editions of my ISTaturliche 

 Schopfungs-Geschichte (first edition, 1868; ninth edition, 1898), and my 

 Anthropogenie (first edition, 1874; fourth edition, 1891), its firm founda- 

 tion was shown in the third part of my Systematische Phylogenie (1895). 



It is well known that in the course of the forty years which have 

 passed since the first publication of Darwin's theory an extensive 

 polemical literature has appeared, relating to both its general signifi- 

 cance and to the evolution of man, its most important result. That 

 the latter is iudissolubly connected with the former is now generally 

 recognized, and it is exactly this intimate connection that explains the 

 stubborn resistance that has been shown to the entire theory of evolu- 

 tion by all mystical and orthodox schools, by all men who have not 

 been able to free themselves from the traditional anthropocentric 

 superstition. In the sharp fight that has ensued on this subject the 

 most varied weapons have been used. We can refer here only to cer- 

 tain exceptions based upon empirical biological grounds; we must 

 disregard all those numerous assaults based upon metaphysical and 

 mystical speculations made by those ignorant of the empirical but well 

 established facts of biology. The most important part of our task 

 will, therefore, be the critical examination of the three evidential 

 sciences which we place at the base of all phylogenetic researches: 

 paleontology, comparative anatomy, and ontogeny. We must cast a 

 glance upon the advances made during the last ten years in these three 

 auxiliaries of the science of the evolution of man and thus ascertain 

 the degree of certainty to which a knowledge of his origin has attained 

 by reason of these advances. 



First, we have to examine the position which modern zoology, sup- 

 ported by comparative anatomy, gives to man in the natural system 

 of the animal kingdom. For the aim of the natural system itself is to 

 establish the hypothetical family tree and all the single groups, greater 

 or smaller, which we distinguish as classes, legions, orders, families, 

 genera, and species in the same stock are only different twigs and 

 branches of this tree. Now, the systematic place which should be 

 assigned to man in consideration of all the details of his bodily struc- 

 ture remained for a long time doubtful. When the great Lamarck, at 



