OUR PRESENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE DESCENT OF MAN
BY
ERNST HAECKEL
(JENA)
WITH NOTES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
BY
HANS GADOW, F.R.S.
(CAMBRIDGE)
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1898
| page | |
| THE LAST LINK | |
| INTRODUCTORY | 1 |
| COMPARATIVE ANATOMY | 8 |
| PALÆONTOLOGY | 20 |
| OTHER EVIDENCE | 42 |
| STAGES RECAPITULATED | 47 |
| BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES: | |
| LAMARCK, SAINT-HILAIRE, CUVIER, BAER, | |
| MUELLER, VIRCHOW, COPE, KOELLIKER, GEGENBAUR, | |
| HAECKEL | 80 |
| THEORY OF CELLS | 115 |
| FACTORS OF EVOLUTION | 117 |
| GEOLOGICAL TIME AND EVOLUTION | 135 |
The address I delivered on August 26 at theFourth International Congress of Zoology atCambridge, 'On our Present Knowledge ofthe Descent of Man,' has, I find, from thehigh significance of the theme and thegeneral importance of the questions connectedwith it, excited much interest, andhas led to requests for its publication.Hence this volume, edited by my friendDr. H. Gadow, my pupil in earlier days,who has not only revised the text, but hasalso enriched it by many valuable additionsand notes.
ERNST HAECKEL.
Jena, December, 1898.
At the end of the nineteenth century, theage of 'natural science,' the department ofknowledge that has made most progress iszoology. From zoology has arisen the studyof transformism, which now dominates thewhole of biology. Lamarck[1] laid its foundationin 1809, and forty years ago CharlesDarwin obtained for it a recognition whichis now universal. It is not my task to repeatthe well-known principles of Darwinism. Iam not concerned to explain the scientificvalue of the whole theory of descent. Thewhole of our biological study is pervaded byit. No general problem in zoology and[Pg 2]botany, in anatomy and physiology, can bediscussed without the question arising, Howhas this problem originated? What are thereal causes of its development?
This question was almost unknown seventyyears ago, when Charles Darwin, the greatreformer