71632

Copyright, 1896, by Charles Scribne

for the United States of Amer

s Sons

ca

94

BIOLOGY
LIBRARY
G

Printed by the Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company

New York, U. SA,

CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION

. 1

The question.-The two theories of man's origin.-The argument purely

historical.-Means of tracing man's ancestry and history.-Classification.
-Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis.

CHAPTER II

PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS. 32

Amoeba: Its anatomy and physiology.-Development of the cell. —

Hydra: The development of digestive and reproductive organs, and of
tissues.-Forms intermediate between amoeba and hydra: Magosphæra,
volvox.-Embryonic development.-Turbellaria: Appearance of a body
wall, of ganglion, and nerve-cords.

CHAPTER III

WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD

Worms and the development of organs.-Mollusks: The external protec-

tive skeleton leads to degeneration or stagnation.-Annelids and arthro-

pods: The external locomotive skeleton leads to temporary rapid advance,

but fails of the goal.—Its disadvantages.-Vertebrates: The internal loco-

motive skeleton leads to backbone and brain.-Reasons for their dominance

-The primitive vertebrate.

55

CHAPTER IV

VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN

The advance of vertebrates from fish through amphibia and reptiles to

mammals.—The development of skeleton, appendages, circulatory and
respiratory systems, and brain. -Mammals: The oviparous monotremata.
-Marsupials.—Placental mammals.-Development of the placenta.-Prim-
ates. —Arboreal life and the development of the hand.-Comparison of man
with the highest apes.-Recapitulation of the history of man's origin and
development. The sequence of dominant functions.

CHAPTER V

THE HISTORY OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS

SEQUENCE OF FUNCTIONS

CHAPTER VI

. 113

Mode of investigation.- Intellect.-Sense-perceptions.-Association. —

Inference and understanding.-Rational intelligence.-Modes of mental or

nervous action.-Reflex action, unconscious and comparatively mechanical.

-Instinctive action: The actor is conscious, but guided by heredity.-In-

telligent action.-The actor is conscious, guided by intelligence resulting

from experience or observation. -The will stimulated by motives.-Appe-

tites. Fear and other prudential considerations.-Care for young and love

of mates.-The dawn of unselfishness.-Motives furnished by the rational

intelligence: Truth, right, duty.-Recapitulation: The will, stimulated by

ever higher motives, is finally to be dominated by unselfishness and love

of truth and righteousness.-These rouse the only inappeasable hunger,

and are capable of indefinite development.-Strength of these motives.—

Their complete dominance the goal of human development.

PAGE

. 81

NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT .

eration, or, rarely, to stagnation.-Natural selection becomes more un-
sparing as we go higher.-Extinction.-Severity of the struggle for life.-
The reversal of the sequence of functions leads to extermination, degen-

Environment one.-But lower animals come into vital relation with but a

small part of it.-It consists of a myriad of forces, which, as

acting on a

152

-

given form, may be considered as one grand resultant.-Environment is

thus a power making at first for digestion and reproduction, then for mus-

cular strength and activity, then for shrewdness, finally for unselfishness

and righteousness.-An ultimate "power, not ourselves, making for right-

eousness, a personality. Our knowledge of this personality may be valid,

even though very incomplete.-Religion.-Conformity to the spiritual in

or behind environment is likeness to God.-The conservative tendency in

evolution:

"9

CHAPTER VII

CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT

Human environment.-The development of the family as the school of
man's training. The family as the school of unselfishness and obedience.
The family as the basis of social life.-Society as an aid to conformity

to environment by increasing intelligence and training conscience.-Mental

and moral heredity.-Personal magnetism.-Man's search for a king.-

The essence of Christianity.-Conformity to environment gives future

supremacy, but often at the cost of present hardship.-Conformity as

obedience to the laws of our being.-Environment best understood through

the study of the human mind.-Productiveness and prospectiveness of

vital capital.-Faith.

CHAPTER VIII

PAGE

177

MAN.

..210

Composed of atoms and molecules, hence subject to chemical and physi-

cal laws.—As a living being.—As an animal.—As a vertebrate.—As a

mammal.-As a social being.-As a personal and moral being.-The con-

flict between the higher and the lower in man.-As a religious being.-As

hero.-He has not yet attained.-Future man.-He will utilize all his

powers, duly subordinating the lower to the higher.-The triumph of the

common people.

CHAPTER IX

THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE .

241

Subject of the Bible.-Man: Body, intellect, heart.-God: Law, sin,

and penalty.—God manifested in Christ.-Salvation, the divine life per-
meating man.-Faith.-Prayer.-Hope.-The Church.-The battle.—The
victory. The crown.

viii

PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION

The struggle for existence.-Natural selection.-Correlation of

Fortuitous variation.-Origin of the fittest.-Nägeli's theory: I

dency supreme.-Weismann and the Neo-Darwinians: Natural

omnipotent.-The Neo-Lamarckians.-Comparison of the Neo-I

and the Neo-Lamarckian views.-"Individuality" the controlli

throughout the life of the organism.-Transmission of special effec

and disuse.-Summary.

CHART SHOWING SEQUENCE OF ATTAINMENTS AND

OF DOMINANT FUNCTIONS

PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.