EVOLUTION MADE PLAIN 
5 
may develop into another, as that the goat may 
develop into the deer, or that the ape may 
evolve into man. For one species to become 
another existing species it would have to take 
the back track to the point where the two 
species began to diverge and travel the other 
route—which of course would be impossible. 
This may help in getting the idea: the larger 
divisions and groups of animals (fishes, rep¬ 
tiles, mammals, etc.) may be compared to the 
main or primary branches of a tree, the fami¬ 
lies and orders (as the deer, the cat, and the 
dog) to the secondary branches growing from 
the primary ones, and the species to the further 
divisions of the secondary branches. Now we 
can see that one species can no more become 
another—that is, any now existing—than one 
branch of a tree can become another. A spe¬ 
cies can, in time, if subject to the proper con¬ 
ditions, split into varieties which, if developed 
far enough, may become distinct species. But 
no one of these species can be said to have 
been evolved from a contemporary species, for 
all have been changed, and the stock from 
which they came has ceased to exist as such. 
Each of the existing species would have a dis¬ 
tinct name such as, for instance, cow, bison, 
Cape buffalo, yak. Now suppose the fossil re¬ 
mains of the common ancestor of the above- 
named species were found—what should it be 
called, cow, bison, Cape buffalo, or yak? It 
would be neither, for it would probably differ 
as much or more from them as they differ 
among themselves. Thus is laid to rest the 
idea that evolution is a theory that man was 
evolved from, or by way of, the monkey or the 
