DEVELOPMENT. 143 



form that distinguish the variety of man to which it be- 

 longs. 



The generalization here expressed and illustrated, must 

 not be confounded with an erroneous semblance of it that has 

 obtained considerable currency. An impression has been 

 given by those who have popularized the statements of em- 

 bryologists, that during its development, each higher organ- 

 ism passes through stages in which it resembles the adult 

 forms of lower organisms — that the embryo of a man is at 

 one time like a fish, and at another time like a reptile. This 

 is not the fact. The fact established is, that up to a certain 

 point, the embryos of a man and a fish continue similar, and 

 that then differences begin to appear and increase — the one 

 embryo approaching more and more towards the form of a 

 fish ; the other diverging from it more and more. And so 

 with the resemblances to the more advanced types. Suppos- 

 ing the germs of all kinds of organisms to be simultaneously 

 developing, we may say that all members of the vast mul- 

 titude take their first steps in the same direction ; that at the 

 second step one-half of this vast multitude diverges from the 

 other half, and thereafter follows a different course of deve- 

 lopment ; that the immense assemblage contained in either 

 of these divisions, very soon again shows a tendency to take 

 two or more routes of development ; that each of the two or 

 more minor assemblages thus resulting, shows for a time but 

 small divergences among its members, but presently again 

 divides into groups which separate ever more widely as they 

 progress ; and so on, until each organism, when nearly com- 

 plete, is accompanied in its further modifications only by 

 organisms of the same species ; and last of all, assumes the 

 peculiarities which distinguish it as an individual — diverges 

 to a slight extent to the organisms it is most like. The 



reader must also be cautioned against accepting this general- 

 ization as exact. The likenesses thus successively displa} T ed 

 are not precise but approximate. Only leading characteris- 

 tics are the same : not all the details. It is as though, in 



