CHAPTER I. The Controversy About Creation

THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT CREATION

EVOLUTION AND DOGMA

EXPLANATION OF PLATE I

GENEALOGICAL TREE OF THE VERTEBRATES

The genetic relationship of all vertebrates, from the earliest acrania and fishes up to the apes and man, is proved in its main lines by the concordant testimony of paleontology, comparative anatomy, and embryology. All competent and impartial zoologists now agree that the vertebrates are all descended from a single stem, and that the root of this is to be sought in extinct pre-Silurian Acrania (1), somewhat similar to the living lancelet. The Cyclostoma (2) represent the transition from the latter to the Fishes (3); and the Dipneusts (4) the transition from these to the Amphibia (5). From the latter have been developed the Reptiles (6) on the one hand, and the Mammals (7) on the other. The most important branch of this most advanced class is the Primates (8); from the half-apes, or lemurs, a direct line leads, through the baboons, to the anthropoid apes, and through these on to man. (Cf. the tables on pp. 115-120). Further information will be found in chapters xxiv.-xxvii. of the History of Creation, and chapters xxi.-xxiii. of the Evolution of Man.

PLATE I.

LAST WORDS ON EVOLUTION