Page:Evolution of Life (Henry Cadwalader Chapman, 1873).djvu/7



1858, the year in which appeared Mr. Darwin's famous book, the literary as well as the scientific world has been deluged with works—great and small—on the subject of the Origin of Species. Notwithstanding, however, the great number of works that have been published in England, Germany, France, and Italy treating of the Development Theory, the Origin of Man, etc., there appears to be still a great deal of misunderstanding in reference to these subjects. It did not seem, therefore, superfluous to bring together a condensed view of the evidences for the theory that the animal and vegetal worlds have been very gradually developed or evolved, as distinguished from the hypothesis of their sudden special creation. We have endeavored to place before the reader, in as popular a manner as possible, the most important generalizations in reference to the structure of plants and animals, their petrified remains, and mode of development, and to point out how the theory of the Evolution of Life follows from the acts of Anatomy, Geology, and Embryology. While we have little new to offer to those Who are familiar with the works of Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace, Spencer, Owen, Huxley, Hooker, Lyell, Haeckel, Gegenbaur, Buchner, (v)