Page:The Last link.djvu/114

102 was ignored, probably because he had placed the old-fashioned study of zoology and morphology upon a thoroughly Darwinistic basis.

On the advice of his friend Gegenbaur, he gave a more popularly written abstract of his 'Generelle Morphologie'—in fact, the substance of a series of his lectures—in the shape of his 'Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte.' This 'History of Natural Creation,' which in 1898 has reached the ninth edition (first edition translated into English in 1873), had the desired effect. So also had his 'Anthropogenie oder Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menschen,' the fourth edition of which appeared in 1891.

It was a lucky coincidence that Haeckel had just finished his preliminary academical studies, was entirely at leisure, and undetermined to which branch of natural science he should devote his genius, when Darwin's great work was given to the world. Haeckel embraced the new doctrine fervently, and, as Huxley was doing in England, he spread