GENESIS OF MAN. 23 



onic metamorphoses which he has observed and described, and as 

 recently as the date of the late Professor Agassiz' public lectures, 

 is quoted by him in a private letter as still adhering to his doctrine 

 of types, and protesting against that of descent from the apes. 7 



Anthropogeny, or the Genesis of Man, considers all the argu- 

 ments, both from ontogeny and from phylogeny, in support of the 

 assumption of the descent of the human race in a direct line from 

 the lower animals, shows throughout the length of this line what 

 creatures now existing upon the globe or found fossil in the rocks, 

 stand nearest to this line of descent, and aims to trace the pedigree 

 of the being who is the present undisputed lord of the planet back 

 to the lowest amoeba, and even to the moner. Haeckel does not 

 stop with the ape, with the amphioxus, or even with the ascidian. 

 Guided by the Ariadnean clew of ontogenesis, he pursues man's 

 genealogy back through the labyrinth of primordial forms into the 

 cell, and thence still back until he loses it in protoplasm. 



Standing, as man does, at the head of the animal kingdom, and 

 forming the last and highest stage of development upon the globe, 

 the history of his progress from the lowest form of organic exist- 

 ence must be co-extensive with that of all other beings. It differs, 

 however, from the history of development in general, in not being 

 concerned with any of the branches that diverge at various points 

 from the main anthropogenetic stem. This becomes obvious when 

 we commence to study phylogeny, but may be noted here as a 

 means of better appreciating the true scope of Anthropogeny. 

 A few illustrations will make it clear. 



Not to speak of the entire vegetable kingdom which is lopped 

 off at the first stroke, we find, as we ascend the scale, that one after 

 another the great branches of the Zoophytes, of the Annelids (in- 

 cluding all the Articulates and the Echinoderms), of the Mollusca, 

 of the Fishes, of the Reptiles, of the Ungulata and Cetacea, of the 

 Carnivora and Rodentia, and of many other less important groups, 

 are successively passed by and left behind ; thus obviating the ne- 

 cessity of following out the special genealogy and development of 

 each of these complicated divisions of natural history. The his- 

 tory of development of man pushes right on, taking such notice 

 only of divergent trunks as is necessary to fix with certainty the 

 position of his line of march. 



7 Since the above was written, the death of Von Baer has been announced. His 

 last effort was in the nature of a systematic attack on Darwinism. 



