. Evolution, and its bearing on religions. nd if the develop-ment of the higher individual is now a general recapitulation ofthat of its ancestral species, in studying their recapitulation weshould expect to find the higher organism successively unfoldingits higher characters from the lower ones through which itsancestral species had previously passed. And this is just what wedo find. This is admirably and concisely expressed. In the interior of the germ-cell is a nucleus, andaround the cell a rind with minute openings or gate-ways. We shall the better realise and appreciate themarvellous mech
. Evolution, and its bearing on religions. nd if the develop-ment of the higher individual is now a general recapitulation ofthat of its ancestral species, in studying their recapitulation weshould expect to find the higher organism successively unfoldingits higher characters from the lower ones through which itsancestral species had previously passed. And this is just what wedo find. This is admirably and concisely expressed. In the interior of the germ-cell is a nucleus, andaround the cell a rind with minute openings or gate-ways. We shall the better realise and appreciate themarvellous mechanism and operations of Nature if weconsider that the whole of the cell containing this com-plex structure is almost too small to be seen with thenaked eye. When fertilisation takes place, the maleelement, in the shape of microscopic tadpoles, finds itsway through the opening or gateway of the cell-rind,and fusing with the nucleus inside, the two form thefoundation, as it were, of the future being. Plate IV. Hand of Six different i, Man. 2, Gorilla. 3, Oiang. 4, Dog. 5, Seal. 6, Porpoise. Embryology 79 It is a most remarkable fact that the male pronucleus(too small to be seen without magnifying power) seemsto know where to find the gateway leading to the abodeof the female pronucleus, and that as soon as he entersher domain she advances to meet him, when theycoalesce, and thus supply the two elements—male andfemale—necessary for the formation of an organic being. A very important fact to observe is, that in so-calledbirth and growth the continuity of Nature is unbroken,reproduction and growth being one and the same , in the beginning of organic existence on ourplanet, elaborated living matter from inorganic matter,and has, we must believe, gone on doing so ever unit of construction she has elaborated from struc-tureless protoplasm in the shape of a cell; and as everyliving thing begins to form and grow from a cell, so doesit take form and g
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