The Evolution of Man, vol 1 | Page 6

structure of the back-boned (vertebrate) animal, and the probable common ancestor of all the vertebrates (a small fish of the lancelet type).
Chapters
1.11 to 1.14 then carry out the construction step by step. The work is now simpler, in the sense that we leave all the invertebrate animals out of account; but there are so many organs to be fashioned out of the four simple layers that the reader must proceed carefully. In the second volume each of these organs will be dealt with separately, and the parallel will be worked out between its embryonic and its phylogenetic (evolutionary) development. The general reader may wait for this for a full understanding. But in the meantime the wonderful story of the construction of all our organs in the course of a few weeks (the human frame is perfectly formed, though less than two inches in length, by the twelfth week) from so simple a material is full of interest. It would be useless to attempt to summarise the process. The four chapters are themselves but a summary of it, and the eighty fine illustrations of the process will make it sufficiently clear. The last chapter carries the story on to the point where man at last parts company with the anthropoid ape, and gives a full account of the membranes or wrappers that enfold him in the womb, and the connection with the mother.
In conclusion, I would urge the reader to consult, at his free library perhaps, the complete edition of this work, when he has read the present abbreviated edition. Much of the text has had to be condensed in order to bring out the work at our popular price, and the beautiful plates of the complete edition have had to be omitted. The reader will find it an immense assistance if he can consult the library edition.
JOSEPH MCCABE.
Cricklewood, March, 1906.
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HAECKEL'S CLASSIFICATION OF THE ANIMAL WORLD.
UNICELLULAR ANIMALS (PROTOZOA).
1. Unnucleated.
Bacteria. Protamoebae.
Monera.
2. Nucleated.
2A. Rhizopoda.
Amoebina. Radiolaria.
2B. Infusoria.
Flagellata. Ciliata.
3. Cell-Colonies.
Catallacta. Blastaeada.
MULTICELLULAR ANIMALS (METAZOA).
1. COELENTERIA, COELENTERATA, OR ZOOPHYTES. Animals without body-cavity, blood or anus.
1A. Gastraeads.
Gastremaria. Cyemaria.
1B. Sponges.
Protospongiae. Metaspongiae.
1C. Cnidaria (Stinging Animals).
Hydrozoa. Polyps. Medusae.
1D. Platodes (Flat-Worms).
Platodaria. Turbellaria. Trematoda. Cestoda.
2. COELOMARIA OR BILATERALS. Animals with body-cavity and anus, and generally blood.
2A. Vermalia (Worm-Like).
Rotatoria. Strongylaria. Prosopygia. Frontonia.
2B. Molluscs.
Cochlides. Conchades. Teuthodes.
2C. Articulates.
Annelida. Crustacea. Tracheata.
2D. Echinoderms.
Monorchonia. Pentorchonia.
2E. Tunicates.
Copelata. Ascidiae. Thalidiae.
2F. Vertebrates.
2F.1. Acrania-Lancelet (Without Skull).
2F.2. Craniota (With Skull).
2F.2A. Cyclostomes. ("Round-Mouthed").
2F.2B. Fishes.
Selachii. Ganoids. Teleosts. Dipneusts.
2F.2C. Amphibia.
2F.2D. Reptiles.
2F.2E. Birds.
2F.2F. Mammal.
Monotremes.
Marsupials.
Placentals:-- Rodents. Edentates. Ungulates. Cetacea. Sirenia. Insectivora. Cheiroptera. Carnassia. Primates.
(This classification is given for the purpose of explaining Haeckel's use of terms in this volume. The general reader should bear in mind that it differs very considerably from more recent schemes of classification. He should compare the scheme framed by Professor E. Ray Lankester.)
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THE EVOLUTION OF MAN.

CHAPTER 1.
1. THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.
The field of natural phenomena into which I would introduce my readers in the following chapters has a quite peculiar place in the broad realm of scientific inquiry. There is no object of investigation that touches man more closely, and the knowledge of which should be more acceptable to him, than his own frame. But among all the various branches of the natural history of mankind, or anthropology, the story of his development by natural means must excite the most lively interest. It gives us the key of the great world-riddles at which the human mind has been working for thousands of years. The problem of the nature of man, or the question of man's place in nature, and the cognate inquiries as to the past, the earliest history, the present situation, and the future of humanity--all these most important questions are directly and intimately connected with that branch of study which we call the science of the evolution of man, or, in one word, "Anthropogeny" (the genesis of man). Yet it is an astonishing fact that the science of the evolution of man does not even yet form part of the scheme of general education. In fact, educated people even in our day are for the most part quite ignorant of the important truths and remarkable phenomena which anthropogeny teaches us.
As an illustration of this curious state of things, it may be pointed out that most of what are considered to be "educated" people do not know that every human being is developed from an egg, or ovum, and that this egg is one simple cell, like any other plant or animal egg. They are equally ignorant that in the course of the development of this tiny, round egg-cell there is first formed a body that is totally different from the human frame, and has not the remotest resemblance to it. Most of them have never seen such a human embryo in the earlier period of its development, and do not know that it is quite indistinguishable from other animal embryos.