12 EVOLUTION MADE PLAIN 
assumes all the characteristics of the quadru¬ 
ped even to the tail which in the human em¬ 
bryo at this stage is longer than its legs. Dur¬ 
ing the sixth month the entire body of the 
human foetus, except the palms and soles, is 
covered with fine, woolly hair. 
Thus far the human embryo has developed 
in the same way, has undergone the same 
changes, has passed through precisely the same 
stages as the embryo of other animals. In its 
further development it leaves them all behind 
except those nearest man. Its tail disappears, 
and it now has an opposable or thumb-like 
great toe which with the monkey and the ape 
is a permanent characteristic. It is only in 
the latest stages of development that the hu¬ 
man embryo presents marked differences from 
the embryonic ape. 
Of the fact that the embryo in its develop¬ 
ment from a single fertilized cell passes 
through all the stages representative of the 
principal animal divisions, and in a progressive 
order from the simple to the complex and 
highly developed, there is no explanation but 
that of heredity and descent—of descent of 
the higher animals from the lower with hered¬ 
ity transmitting the records of the remote an¬ 
cestral stages. Each stage, as of the fish, the 
quadruped, the ape, is a sign board along the 
route of man’s descent. The nine months’ em¬ 
bryonic period of each of us is an epitome of 
the history of the race down to the human 
period. 
Nor do the evidences of race-history as re¬ 
vealed by the child cease with its birth. The 
babe is nearer the lower mammals than is the 
