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  THE HISTORY OF CREATION.




[Illustration: Hypothetical Sketch of the Monophyletic Origin of Man.]




  THE
  HISTORY OF CREATION:

  _OR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARTH AND ITS
  INHABITANTS BY THE ACTION OF NATURAL CAUSES._

  A POPULAR EXPOSITION OF
  THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION IN GENERAL, AND OF THAT OF
  DARWIN, GOETHE, AND LAMARCK IN PARTICULAR.

  FROM THE GERMAN OF
  ERNST HAECKEL,
  PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF JENA.

  THE TRANSLATION REVISED BY
  PROFESSOR E. RAY LANKESTER, M.A., F.R.S.,
  FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD.

  _IN TWO VOLUMES._
  VOL. II.

  NEW YORK:
  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
  1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
  1880.




                        A sense sublime
  Of something far more deeply interfused,
  Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
  And the round ocean, and the living air,
  And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
  A motion and a spirit that impels
  All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
  And rolls through all things.

  In all things, in all natures, in the stars
  Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds,
  In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone
  That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks,
  The moving waters and the invisible air.

                                   WORDSWORTH.




CONTENTS OF VOL. II.


  CHAPTER XV.
                                                                    PAGE
  PERIODS OF CREATION AND RECORDS OF CREATION.

  Reform of Systems by the Theory of Descent.--The Natural System
  as a Pedigree.--Palaeontological Records of the
  Pedigree.--Petrifactions as Records of Creation.--Deposits of the
  Neptunic Strata and the Enclosure of Organic Remains.--Division
  of the Organic History of the Earth into Five Main Periods:
  Period of the Tangle Forests, Fern Forests, Pine Forests,
  Foliaceous Forests, and of Cultivation.--The Series of Neptunic
  Strata.--Immeasurable Duration of the Periods which have elapsed
  during their Formation.--Deposits of Strata only during the
  Sinking, not during the Elevation of the Ground.--Other Gaps in
  the Records of Creation.--Metamorphic Condition of the most
  Ancient Neptunic Strata.--Small Extent of Palaeontological
  Experience.--Small proportion of Organisms and of Parts of
  Organisms Capable of Petrifying.--Rarity of many Petrified
  Species.--Want of Fossilised Intermediate Forms.--Records of the
  Creation in Ontogeny and in Comparative Anatomy                      1


  CHAPTER XVI.

  PEDIGREE AND HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF THE PROTISTA.

  Special Mode of Carrying out the Theory of Descent in the
  Natural System of Organisms.--Construction of Pedigrees.--Descent
  of all Many-celled from Single-celled Organisms.--Descent of
  Cells from Monera.--Meaning of Organic Tribes, or Phyla.--Number
  of the Tribes in the Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms.--The
  Monophyletic Hypothesis of Descent, or the Hypothesis of one
  Common Progenitor, and the Polyphyletic Hypothesis of Descent,
  or the Hypothesis of many Progenitors.--The Kingdom of Protista,
  or Primaeval Beings.--Eight Classes of the Protista Kingdom:
  Monera, Amoebae, or Protoplastae; Whip-swimmers, or Flagellata;
  Ciliated-balls, Cili Catallacta; Labyrinth-streamers, or
  Labyrinthuleae; Flint-cells, or Diatomeae; Mucous-moulds, or
  Myxomycetes; Root-footers (Rhizopoda).--Remarks on the General
  Natural History of the Protista: Their Vital Phenomena,
  Chemical Composition, and Formation (Individuality and
  Fundamental Form).--Phylogeny of the Prostista Kingdom              36


  CHAPTER XVII.

  PEDIGREE AND HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM.

  The Natural System of the Vegetable Kingdom.--Division of the
  Vegetable Kingdom into Six Branches and Eighteen Classes.--The
  Flowerless Plants (Cryptogamia).--Sub-kingdom of the Thallus
  Plants.--The Tangles, or Algae (Primary Algae, Green Algae, Brown
  Algae, Red Algae).--The Thread-plants, or Inophytes (Lichens and
  Fungi).--Sub-kingdom of the Prothallus Plants.--The Mosses, or
  Muscinae (Water-mosses, Liverworts, Leaf-mosses,
  Bog-mosses).--The Ferns, or Filicinae (Leaf-ferns, Bamboo-ferns,
  Water-ferns, Scale-ferns).--Sub kingdom of Flowering Plants
  (Phanerogamia).--The Gymnosperms, or Plants with Naked Seeds
  (Palm-ferns = Cycadeae; Pines = Coniferae).--The Angiosperms, or
  Plants with Enclosed Seeds.--Monocotylae.--Dicotylae.--Cup-blossoms
  (Apetalae).--Star-blossoms (Diapetalae).--Bell-blossoms
  (Gamopetalae)                                                        77


  CHAPTER XVIII.

  PEDIGREE AND HISTORY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

  I. ANIMAL-PLANTS AND WORMS.

  The Natural System of the Animal Kingdom.--Linnaeus' and Lamarck's
  Systems.--The Four Types of Baer and Cuvier.--Their Increase to
  Seven Types.--Genealogical Importance of the Seven Types as
  Independent Tribes of the Animal Kingdom.--Derivation of
  Zoophytes and Worms from Primaeval Animals.--Monophyletic and
  Polyphyletic Hypothesis of the Descent of the Animal
  Kingdom.--Common Origin of the Four Higher Animal Tribes out of
  the Worm Tribe.--Division of the Seven Animal Tribes into
  Sixteen Main Classes, and Thirty-eight Classes.--Primaeval
  Animals (Monera, Amoebae, Synamoebae), Gregarines, Infusoria,
  Planaeades, and Gastraeades (Planula and Gastrula).--Tribe of
  Zoophytes.--Spongiae (Mucous Sponges, Fibrous Sponges, Calcareous
  Sponges).--Sea Nettles, or Acalephae (Corals, Hood-jellies,
  Comb-jellies).--Tribe of Worms                                     117


  CHAPTER XIX.

  PEDIGREE AND HISTORY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

  II. MOLLUSCA, STAR-FISHES, AND ARTICULATED ANIMALS.

  Tribe of Molluscs.--Four Classes of Molluscs: Lamp-shells
  (Spirobranchia); Mussels (Lamellibranchia); Snails (Cochlides);
  Cuttle-fish (Cephalopoda).--Tribe of Star-fishes, or
  Echinoderma.--Their Derivation from Ringed Worms (Mailed Worms,
  or Phracthelminthes).--The Alternation of Generation in the
  Echinoderma.--Four Classes of Star-fish: Sea-stars (Asteridea);
  Sea-lilies (Crinoidea); Sea-urchins (Echinidea); Sea-cucumbers
  (Holothuridea).--Tribe of Articulated Animals, or
  Arthropoda.--Four Classes of Articulated Animals: Branchiata, or
  Crustacea, breathing through gills; Jointed Crabs; Mailed
  Crabs; Articulata Tracheata, breathing through Air
  Tubes.--Spiders (Long Spiders, Round
  Spiders).--Myriopods.--Insects.--Chewing and Sucking
  Insects.--Pedigree and History of the Eight Orders of Insects      154


  CHAPTER XX.

  PEDIGREE AND HISTORY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

  III. VERTEBRATE ANIMALS.

  The Records of the Creation of Vertebrate Animals (Comparative
  Anatomy, Embryology, and Palaeontology).--The Natural System of
  Vertebrate Animals.--The Four Classes of Vertebrate Animals,
  according to Linnaeus and Lamarck.--Their Increase to Nine
  Classes.--Main Class of the Tube-hearted, or Skull-less Animals
  (the Lancelet).--Blood Relationship between the Skull-less Fish
  and the Tunicates.--Agreement in the Embryological Development
  of Amphioxus and Ascidiae.--Origin of the Vertebrate Tribe out of
  the Worm Tribe.--Main Class of Single-nostriled, or
  Round-mouthed Animals (Hag and Lampreys).--Main Class of
  Anamnionate Animals, devoid of Amnion.--Fishes (Primaeval Fish,
  Cartilaginous Fish, Osseous Fish).--Mud-fish, or Dipneusta.--Sea
  Dragons, or Halisauria.--Frogs and Salamanders, or Amphibia
  (Mailed Amphibia, Naked Amphibia).--Main Class of Amnionate
  Animals, or Amniota.--Reptiles (Primary Reptiles, Lizards,
  Serpents, Crocodiles, Tortoises, Flying Reptiles, Dragons,
  Beaked Reptiles).--Birds (Feather-tailed, Fan-tailed,
  Bush-tailed)                                                       192


  CHAPTER XXI.

  PEDIGREE AND HISTORY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

  IV. MAMMALS.

  The System of Mammals according to Linnaeus and
  Blainville.--Three Sub-classes of Mammals (Ornithodelphia,
  Didelphia, Monodelphia).--Ornithodelphia, or Monotrema.--Beaked
  Animals (Ornithostoma).--Didelphia, or Marsupials.--Herbivorous
  and Carnivorous Marsupials.--Monodelphia, or Placentalia
  (Placental Animals).--Meaning of the Placenta.--Tuft
  Placentalia.--Girdle Placentalia.--Disc
  Placentalia.--Non-deciduates, or Indeciduata.--Hoofed
  Animals.--Single and Double-hoofed Animals.--Whales.--Toothless
  Animals.--Deciduates, or Animals with
  Decidua.--Semi-apes.--Gnawing Animals.--Pseudo-hoofed
  Animals.--Insectivora.--Beasts of Prey.--Bats.--Apes               231


  CHAPTER XXII.

  ORIGIN AND PEDIGREE OF MAN.

  The Application of the Theory of Descent to Man.--Its Immense
  Importance and Logical Necessity.--Man's Position in the Natural
  System of Animals, among Disco-placental Animals.--Incorrect
  Separation of the Bimana and Quadrumana.--Correct Separation of
  Semi-apes from Apes.--Man's Position in the Order of
  Apes.--Narrow-nosed Apes (of the Old World) and Flat-nosed Apes
  (of America).--Difference of the two Groups.--Origin of Man from
  Narrow-nosed Apes.--Human Apes, or Anthropoides.--African
  Human-apes (Gorilla and Chimpanzee).--Asiatic Human-apes (Orang
  and Gibbon).--Comparison between the different Human Apes and
  the different Races of Men.--Survey of the Series of the
  Progenitors of Man.--Invertebrate Progenitors (Prochordata) and
  Vertebrate Progenitors                                             263


  CHAPTER XXIII.

  MIGRATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF MANKIND. HUMAN SPECIES AND HUMAN
  RACES.

  Age of the Human Race.--Causes of its Origin.--The Origin of
  Human Language.--Monophyletic or Single, Polyphyletic or
  Multiple Origin of the Human Race.--Derivation of Man from many
  Pairs.--Classification of the Human Races.--System of Twelve
  Species of Men.--Woolly-Haired Men, or Ulotrichis.--Bushy-Haired
  (Papuans, Hottentots).--Fleecy-haired (Caffres,
  <DW64>s).--Straight-haired Men, or Lissotrichi.--Stiff-haired
  (Australians, Malays, Mongols, Arctic, and American
  Tribes).--Curly-haired (Dravidas, Nubians, Midlanders).--Number
  of Population.--Primaeval Home of Man (South Asia, or
  Lemuria).--Nature of Primaeval Men.--Number of Primaeval Languages
  (Monoglottists and Polyglottists).--Divergence and Migration of
  the Human Race.--Geographical Distribution of the Human Species    296


  CHAPTER XXIV.

  OBJECTIONS AGAINST, AND PROOFS OF THE TRUTH OF, THE THEORY OF
  DESCENT.

  Objections to the Doctrine of Filiation.--Objections of Faith
  and Reason.--Immeasurable Length of the Geological
  Periods.--Transition Forms between Kindred Species.--Dependence
  of Stability of Form on Inheritance, and of the Variability of
  Form on Adaptation.--Origin of very Complicated Arrangement of
  Organisation.--Gradual Development of Instincts and Mental
  Activities.--Origin of a priori Knowledge from Knowledge a
  posteriori.--The Knowledge requisite for the Correct
  Understanding of the Doctrine of Filiation.--Necessary
  Interaction between Empiricism and Philosophy.--Proofs of the
  Theory of Descent.--Inner Causal-Connection between all the
  Biological Series of Phenomena.--The Direct Proof of the Theory
  of Selection.--Relation of the Theory of Descent to
  Anthropology.--Proofs of the Animal Origin of Man.--The Pithecoid
  Theory as an Inseparable Part of the Theory of
  Descent.--Induction and Deduction.--Gradual Development of the
  Human Mind.--Body and Mind.--Human Soul and Animal Soul.--A Glance
  at the Future                                                      334


  LIST OF WORKS REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT                              371

  APPENDIX (Explanation of the Plates)                               379

  INDEX                                                              402




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


PLATES.

    XV.--Hypothetical Sketch of the Monophyletic Origin
          of Man                                          _Frontispiece_

    IV.--Hand of Nine different Mammals                _To face page_ 34

     V.--Single-Stemmed, or Monophyletic, Pedigree of the
          Vegetable Kingdom                                    "     112

    VI.--Historical Growth of the Six Great Stems of Animals   "     122

   VII.--Animal Plants, or Zoophytes                           "     140

  VIII.--Star Fishes--First Generation            _Between pp._ 170, 171

    IX.--Star Fishes--Second Generation                 "        "    "

     X.--Nauplius-Youth-Form of Six Crab Fish           "       174, 175

    XI.--Adult-Form of the same Six Crab Fish           "        "    "

   XII.--Ascidia and Amphioxus                          "       201, 202

  XIII.--Ascidia and Amphioxus                          "        "    "

   XIV.--Single, or Monophyletic, Pedigree of Back-boned
         Animals                                      _To face page_ 222


  FIGURES.

   8.--Protamoeba Primitiva                                           52

   9.--Bathybius Haeckelii                                             53

  10.--Amoeba Sphaerococcus                                            54

  11.--Euglena Striata                                                57

  12.--Magosphaera Planula                                             58

  13.--Labyrinthula Macrocystis                                       59

  14.--Navicula Hippocampus                                           60

  15.--Physarum Albipes                                               61

  16.--Cyrtidosphaera Echinoides                                       66

  17.--Caulerpa Denticulata                                           87

  18.--Euastrum Rota                                                  88

  19.--Fucus Vesiculosus (egg of)                                     90




THE HISTORY OF CREATION.




CHAPTER XV.

PERIODS OF CREATION AND RECORDS OF CREATION.


  Reform of Systems by the Theory of Descent.--The Natural System
  as a Pedigree.--Palaeontological Records of the
  Pedigree.--Petrifactions as Records of Creation.--Deposits of the
  Neptunic Strata and the Enclosure of Organic Remains.--Division
  of the Organic History of the Earth into Five Main Periods:
  Period of the Tangle Forests, Fern Forests, Pine Forests,
  Foliaceous Forests, and of Cultivation.--The Series of Neptunic
  Strata.--Immeasurable Duration of the Periods which have elapsed
  during their Formation.--Deposits of Strata only during the
  Sinking, not during the Elevation of the Ground.--Other Gaps in
  the Records of Creation.--Metamorphic Condition of the most
  Ancient Neptunic Strata.--Small Extent of Palaeontological
  Experience.--Small proportion of Organisms and of Parts of
  Organisms Capable of Petrifying.--Rarity of many Petrified
  Species.--Want of Fossilised Intermediate Forms.--Records of the
  Creation in Ontogeny and in Comparative Anatomy.


The revolutionary influence which the Theory of Descent must exercise
upon all sciences, will in all probability affect no branch of science,
excepting Anthropology, so much as the descriptive portion of natural
history, that which is known as systematic Zoology and Botany. Most
naturalists who have hitherto occupied themselves with arranging the
different systems of animals and plants, have collected, named, and
arranged the different species of these natural bodies with much the
same interest as antiquarians and ethnographers collect the weapons and
utensils of different nations. Many have not even risen above the degree
of intelligence with which people usually collect, label, and arrange
crests, stamps, and similar curiosities. In the same manner as some
collectors find their pleasure in the similarity of forms, the beauty or
rarity of the crests or stamps, and admire in them the inventive art of
man, so many naturalists take a delight in the manifold forms of animals
and plants, and marvel at the rich imagination of the Creator, at His
unwearied creative activity, and at His curious fancy for forming, by
the side of so many beautiful and useful organisms, also a number of
ugly and useless ones.

This childlike treatment of systematic Zoology and Botany is completely
annihilated by the Theory of Descent. In the place of the superficial
and playful interest with which most naturalists have hitherto regarded
organic structures, we now have the much higher interest of the
intelligent understanding which detects in the _related forms_ of
organisms their true _blood relationships_. The _Natural System of
animals and plants_, which was formerly valued either only as a registry
of names, to facilitate the survey of the different forms, or as a table
of contents for the short expression of their degrees of similarity,
receives from the Theory of Descent the incomparably higher value of a
true _pedigree of organisms_. This pedigree is to disclose to us the
genealogical connection of the smaller and larger groups. It has to show
us in what way the different classes, orders, families, genera, and
species of the animal and vegetable kingdoms correspond with the
different branches, twigs, and groups of twigs of the pedigree. Every
wider and higher category or stage of the system (for example a class,
or an order) comprises a number of larger and stronger branches of the
pedigree; every narrower and lower category (for example a genus, or a
species) only a smaller and thinner group of twigs. It is only when we
thus view the natural system as a pedigree that we perceive its true
value. (Gen. Morph. ii. Plate XVII. p. 397.)

Since we hold fast this genealogical conception of the Organic System,
to which alone undoubtedly the future of classificatory Zoology and
Botany belongs, we should now turn our attention to one of the most
essential, but also one of the most difficult, tasks of the
"non-miraculous history of creation," namely, to the actual construction
of the Organic Pedigree. Let us see how far we are already able to point
out all the different organic forms as the divergent descendants of a
single or of some few common original forms. But how can we construct
the actual pedigree of the animal and vegetable group of forms from our
knowledge of them, at present so scanty and fragmentary? The answer to
this question lies in what we have already remarked of the parallelism
of the three series of development--in the important causal relation
which connects the palaeontological development of all organic tribes
with the embryological development of individuals, and with the
systematic development of groups.

In order to accomplish our task we shall first have to direct our
attention to _palaeontology_, or _the science of petrifactions_. For if
the Theory of Descent is really true, if the petrified remains of
formerly living animals and plants really proceed from the extinct
primaeval ancestors and progenitors of the present organisms, then,
without anything else, the knowledge and comparison of petrifactions
ought to disclose to us the pedigree of organisms. However simple and
clear this may seem in theory, the task becomes extremely hard and
complicated when it is actually taken in hand. Its practical solution
would be very difficult even if the petrifactions were to any extent
completely preserved. But this is by no means the case. The obvious
records of creation which lie buried in petrifactions are imperfect
beyond all measure. Hence it is necessary critically to examine these
records, and to determine the value which petrifactions possess for the
history of the development of organic tribes. As I have previously
discussed the general importance of petrifactions as the records of
creation, when we were considering Cuvier's merits in the science of
fossils, we may now at once examine the conditions and circumstances
under which the remains of organic bodies became petrified and preserved
in a more or less recognizable form.

As a rule we find petrifactions or fossils enclosed only in those stones
which have been deposited in layers as mud by water, and which are on
that account called neptunic, stratified, or sedimentary rocks. The
deposition of such strata could of course only commence after the
condensation of watery vapour into liquid water had taken place in the
course of the earth's history. After that period, which we considered in
our last chapter, not only did life begin on the earth, but also an
uninterrupted and exceedingly important transformation of the rigid
inorganic crust of the earth. The water began that extremely important
mechanical action by which the surface of the earth is perpetually,
though slowly, transformed. I may surely presume that it is generally
known what an extremely important influence, in this respect, is even
yet exercised by water at every moment. As it falls down as rain,
trickling through the upper strata of the earth's crust, and flowing
down from heights into hollows, it chemically dissolves different
mineral parts of the ground, and mechanically washes away the loose
particles. In flowing down from mountains water carries their debris
into the plains, or deposits it as mud in stagnant lakes. Thus it
continually works at lowering mountains and filling up valleys. In like
manner the breakers of the sea work uninterruptedly at the destruction
of the coasts and at filling up the bottom of the sea with the debris
they wash down. The action of water alone, if it were not counteracted
by other circumstances, would in time level the whole earth. There can
be no doubt that the mountain masses--which are annually carried down as
mud into the sea, and deposited on its floor--are so great that in the
course of a longer or shorter period, say a few millions of years, the
surface of the earth would be completely levelled and become enclosed by
a continuous sheet of water. That this does not happen is owing to the
perpetual volcanic action of the fiery-fluid centre of the earth. The
surging of the melted nucleus against the firm crust necessitates
continual alternations of elevation and depression on the different
parts of the earth's surface. These elevations and depressions for the
most part take place very slowly; but, as they continue for thousands of
years, by