The History of Creation by Ernst Haeckel (original) (raw)

THE

HISTORY OF CREATION:

OR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARTH AND ITS

INHABITANTS BY THE ACTION OF NATURAL CAUSES.

A POPULAR EXPOSITION OF

THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION IN GENERAL, AND THAT OF

DARWIN, GOETHE, AND LAMARCK IN PARTICULAR.

From the German of

ERNST HAECKEL
Professor in the University of Jena.

The Translation Revised by

Professor E. RAY LANKESTER, M.A., F.R.S.,

Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.

In Two Volumes

Volume I

New York:
D. APPELTON AND COMPANY

1876

Sixth New English Edition 1914

This electronic edition prepared by Dr. David C. Bossard
from original documents in his personal library.

January, 2006.

CONTENTS.

TITLEPAGE i i

PREFACE TO THE NEW ENGLISH EDITION ii ii iii iv

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xv xv xvi xvii xviii xix xx xxi

SUPERSCRIPTION (Wordsworth) xxii xxii

CHAPTER I.NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF FILIATION, OR DESCENT THEORY.

001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 011 012 013 014 015 016 017 018 019 020 021 022 023 024

General Importance and Essential Nature of the Theory of Descent as reformed by Darwin -- Its Special Importance to Biology (Zoology and Botany). -- Its Special Importance to the History of the Natural Development of the Human Race.-- The Theory of Descent a the Non-Miraculous History of Creation. -- Idea of Creation. -- Knowledge and Belief. -- History of Creation and History of Development. -- The Connection between the History of Individual and Palonto1ogica1 Development. -- The Theory of Purposelessness, or the Science of Rudimentary Organs-- Useless and Superfluous Arrangements in Organisms.-- Contrast between the two entirely opposed Views of Nature: the Monistic (mechanical, causal) and the Dualistic (teleological, vital). -- Proof of the former by the Theory of Descent. -- Unity of Organic and Inorganic Nature, and the Identity of the Active Causes in both.-- The Absolute Importance of the Theory of Descent to the Monistic Conception of all Nature.

CHAPTER II.SCIENTIFIC JUSTIFICATION OF THE THEORY OF DESCENT, HISTORY OF CREATION ACCORDING TO LINNÆUS.

025 026 027 028 029 030 031 032 033 034 035 036 037 038 039 040 041 042 043 044 045 046 047 048

The Theory of Descent, or Doctrine of Filiation, as the Monistic Explanation of Organic Natural Phenomena. -- Its Comparison with Newton's Theory of Gravitation. -- Limits of Scientific Explanation and of Human Knowledge in general. -- All Knowledge founded originally on Sensuous Experience, à posteriori. -- Transition of à posteriori Knowledge, by Inheritance, into à priori Knowledge. -- Contrast between the Supernatural Hypotheses of the Creation according to Linnæus, Cuvier, Agassiz, and the Natural Theories of Development according to Lamarck, Goethe, and Darwin. -- Connection of the former with the Monistic (mechanical), of the latter with the Dualistic Conception of the Universe. -- Monism and Materialism. -- Scientific and Moral Materialism. -- The History of Creation according to Moses. -- Linnæus as the Founder of the Systematic Description of Nature and Distinction of Species. -- Linnæus' Classification and Binary Nomenclature. -- Meaning of Liunæus' Idea of Species. -- His History of Creation. -- Linnæus' View of the Origin of Species.

CHAPTER III.THE HISTORY OF CREATION ACCORDING TO CUVIER AND AGASSIZ.

049 050 051 052 053 054 055 056 057 058 059 060 061 062 063 064 065 066 067 068 069 070 071 072 073

General Theoretical Meaning of the Idea of Species. -- Distinction between the Theoretical and Practical Definition of the Idea of Species.-- Cuvier's Definition of Species. -- Merits of Cuvier as the Founder of Comparative Anatomy. -- Distinction of the Four Principal Forms (types or branches) of the Animal Kingdom, by Cuvier and Bär. -- Cuvier's Services to Palæontology. -- His Hypothesis of the Revolutions of our Globe, and the Epochs of Creation separated by them.--

nknown Supernatural Causes of the Revolutions, and the subsequent New Creations. -- Agassiz's Teleological System of Nature. -- His Conception of the Plan of Creation, and its six Categories (groups in classification). -- Agassiz's Views of the Creation of Species. -- Rude Conception of the Creator as a man-like being in Agassiz's Hypothesis of Creation.-- Its internal Inconsistency and Contradictions with the important Palæontological Laws discovered by Agassiz.

CHAPTER IV.THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT ACCORDING TO GOETHE AND OKEN.

074 075 076 077 078 079 080 081 082 083 084 085 086 087 088 089 090 091 092 093 094 095 096 097 098 099 100 101

Scientific Insufficiency of all Conceptions of a Creation of Individual Species. -- Necessity of the Counter-Theories of Development. -- Historical Survey of the Most Important Theories of Development. -- Greek Philosophy. -- The Meaning of Natural Philosophy.-- Goethe. -- His Merits as a Naturalist. -- His Metamorphosis of Plants.-- His Vertebral Theory of the Skull. -- His Discovery of the Mid Jawbone in Man. -- Goethe's Interest in the Dispute between Cuvier and Geoffroy St. Hilaire.-- Goethe's Discovery of the Two Organic Formative Principles, of the Conservative Principle of Specification (by Inheritance), and of the Progressive Principle of Transformation (by Adaptation). -- Goethe's Views of the Common Descent of all Vertebrate Animals, including Man.Theory of Development according to Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus. -- His Monistic Conception of Nature. -- Oken.-- His Natural Philosophy. -- Oken's Theory of Protoplasm. -- Oken's Theory of Infusoria (Cell Theory)

CHAPTER V.THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT ACCORDING TO KANT AND LAMARCK.

102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127

Kant's Services to the Theory of Development. --

is Monistic Cosmology and Dualistic Biology. --

ontradiction between the Mechanical and Teleological Conception -- Comparison of Genealogical Biology with Comparative Philology. -- Views in favour of the Theory of Descent entertained by Leopold Buch, Bär, Schleiden, Unger, Schaaffhausen, Victor Carus, Büchner.-- French Nature-Philosophy. -- Lamarck's Philosophie Zoologique. -- Lamarck's Monistic (mechanical) System of Nature. -- His Views of the Interaction of the Two Organic Formative Tendencies of Inheritance and Adaptation. -- Lamarck's Conception of Man's Development from Ape-like Mammals. -- Geoffroy St. Hilaire's, Naudin's, and Lecoq's Defence of the Theory of Descent.-- English Nature-Philosophy. -- Views in favour of the Theory of Descent, entertained by Erasmus Darwin, W. Herbert, Grant, Freke, Herbert Spencer, Hooker, Huxley. -- The Double Merit of Charles Darwin.

CHAPTER VI.THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT ACCORDING TO LYELL AND DARWIN.

128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152

Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology. -- His Natural History of the Earth's Development -- Origin of the Greatest Effects through the Multiplication of the Smallest Causes. -- Unlimited Extent of Geological Periods. -- Lyell's Refutation of Cuvier's History of Creation. -- The Establishment of the Uninterrupted Connection of Historical Development by Lyell and Darwin. -- Biographical Notice of Charles Darwin. -- His Scientific Works.-- His Theory of Coral Reefs. -- Development of the Theory of Selection. -- A Letter of Darwin's. -- The Contemporaneous Appearance of Darwin's and Alfred Wallace's Theory of Selection. -- Darwin's Study of Domestic Animals and Cultivated Plants. -- Andreas Wagner's notions as to the Special Creation of Cultivated Organisms for the Good of Man. -- The Tree of Knowledge in Paradise. -- Comparison between Wild and Cultivated Organisms. -- Darwin's Study of Domestic Pigeons. -- Importance of Pigeon-breeding. -- Common Descent of all Races of Pigeons.

CHAPTER VII.THE THEORY OF SELECTION (DARWINISM).

153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179

Darwinism (Theory of Selection) and Lamarckism (Theory of Descent). -- The Process of Artificial Breeding. -- Selection of the Different Individuals for After-breeding. -- The Active Causes of Transmutation. -- Change connected with Food, and Transmission by Inheritance connected with Propagation. -- Mechanical Nature of these Two Physiological Functions. -- The Process of Natural Breeding: Selection in the Struggle for Existence.-- Malthus' Theory of Population. -- The Proportion between the Numbers of Potential and Actual Individuals of every Species of Organisms. -- General Struggle for Existence, or Competition to attain the Necessaries of Life.-- Transforming Force of the Struggle for Existence.-- Comparison of Natural and Artificial Breeding.-- Selection in the Life of Man. -- Medical and Clerical Selection.

CHAPTER VIII.TRANSMISSION BY INHERITANCE AND PROPAGATION.

180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203

Universality of Inheritance and Transmission by Inheritance. -- Special Evidences of the same. -- Human Beings with four, six, or seven Fingers and Toes. -- Porcupine Men. -- Transmission of Diseases, especially Diseases of the Mind. -- Original Sin.-- Hereditary Monarchies. -- Hereditary Aristocracy. -- Hereditary Talents and Mental Qualities. -- Material Causes of Transmission by Inheritance. -- Connection between Transmission by Inheritance and Propagation. -- Spontaneous Generation and Propagation. -- Nonsexual or Monogonous Propagation. -- Propagation by Self-division. -- Monera and Amœbæ.-- Propagation by the formation of Buds, by the forrnation of Germ-Buds, by the formation of Germ-Cells. -- Sexual or Amphigonous Propagation. -- Formation of Hermaphrodites. -- Distinction of Sexes, or Gonochorism. -- Virginal Breeding, or Parthenogenesis. -- Material Transmission of Peculiarities of both Parents to the Child by Sexual Propagation.

CHAPTER IX.LAWS OF TRANSMISSION BY INHERITANCE.

204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237

Theories of Inheritance. -- Difference between Transmission by Inheritance in Sexual and Nonsexual Propagation.-- Distinction between Conservative and Progressive Transmission by Inheritance. -- Laws of Conservative Transmission: Transmission of Inherited Characters.-- Uninterrupted or Continuous Transmission. -- Interrupted or Latent Transmission. -- Alteration of Generations. -- Relapse. -- Degeneracy.-- Sexual Transmission. -- Seoondary Sexual Characters. -- Mixed or Amphigonous Transmission. -- Hybrids. -- Abridged or Simplified Transmission. -- Laws of Progressive Inheritance: Transmission of Acquired Characters.-- Adapted or Acquired Transmission. -- Fixed or Established Transmission. -- Homochronous Transmission (Identity in time). -- Homotopic Transmission (Identity in place). -- Molecular Theories of Transmission. -- Pangenesis (Darwin).-- Perigenesis (Haeckel). -- Idioplasma (Nägeli). -- Germplasma (Weismann).-- Intracellular Pangenesis (Vries)

CHAPTER X.ADAPTATION AND NUTRITION. LAWS OF ADAPTATION.

238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272

Adaptation and Variation. -- Connection between Adaptation and Nutrition (Change of Matter and Growth). -- Distinction between Indirect and Direct Adaptation. -- Laws of Indirect or Potential Adaptation. -- Individual Adaptation. -- Monstrous or Sudden Adaptation.-- Sexual Adaptation. -- Laws of Direct or Actual Adaptation. -- Universal Adaptation. -- Cumulative Adaptation.-- Cumulative Influence of External Conditions of Existence and Cumulative Counter-influence of the Organism. -- Free-will.-- Use and Non-Use of Organs. -- Practice and Habit. -- Functional Adaptation.-- Correlative Adaptation. -- Correlation of Development. -- Correlation of Organs.-- Explanation of Indirect or Potential Adaptation by the Correlation of the Sexual Organs and of the other Parts of the Body.-- Aping or Mimetic Adaptation (Mimicry). -- Divergent Adaptation. -- Unlimited or Infinite Adaptation

CHAPTER XI.NATURAL SELECTION BY THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. CELLULAR SELECTION AND PERSONAL SELECTION.

273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299

Interaction of the Two Organic Formative Causes, Inheritance and Adaptation. -- Natural and Artificial Selection. -- Struggle for Existence, or Competition for the Necessaries of Life. -- Disproportion between the Number of Possible or Potential, and the Number of Real or Actual Individuals. -- Complicated Correlations of all Neighbouring Organisms. -- Mode of Action in Natural Selection. -- Homochromic Selection as the Cause of Sympathetic Colourings. -- Sexual Selection as the Cause of the Secondary Sexual Characters.-- The Struggle of Parts in the Organism (Roux).-- Functional Self-Formation of Suitable Structures.-- Teleological Mechanism. -- Cellular Selection (Protista) and Personal Selection (Histonæ).-- Selection of the Cells and of the Tissues. --The Principle of Selection in Empedocles. -- Mechanical Origin of what is Suitable for a Purpose from what is Unsuitable.-- Philosophical Range of Darwinism.

CHAPTER XII.DIVISION OF LABOUR AND DIVERGENCE OF FORMS. PROGRESS AND RETROGRADATION.

300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331

Division of Labour (Ergonomy) and Divergence of Forms (Polymorphism).-- Physiologioal Divergence and Morphological Diferentiation both necessarily determined by Selection. -- Transition of Varieties into Species. -- The Idea of Species. -- Hybridism -- Personal Divergence and Cellular Divergence. -- Differentiation of the Tissues. -- Primary and Secondary Tissues. -- Siphonophora.-- Change of Labour (Metergy). -- Convergence.-- The Law of Progress and Perfectioning. -- The Laws of the Development of Mankind. -- The Relation between Progress and Divergence. -- Centralization as Progress. -- Retrogradation. -- The Origin of Rudimentary Organs by Non-Use and Habits discontinued.-- The Doctrine of Purposelessness, or Dysteleology.

CHAPTER XIII.THE INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANISMS. THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ANIMAL TRIBES.

332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362

General Importance of Individual Development (Ontogeny). -- Defeots of our Present Education. -- Facts in the Individual Development. -- Agreement in the Individual Development of Man and the Vertebrate Animals. --The Human Egg. -- Fertilization.-- Immortality. -- The Cleavage of the Egg. -- Formation of Germ-layers.-- Gastrulation. -- History of the Development of the Central Nervous System, of the Extremities, of the Branohial Arches and of the Tail in Vertebrate Animals. -- Causal Connection between Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis. -- The Fundamental Law of Biogenesis. -- Palingenesis or Recapitulative Development. -- Cenogenesis or Disordered Development. -- Stages in Comparative Anatomy. -- Its Relation to the Palæontological and Embryological Series of Development.

CHAPTER XIV.MIGRATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANISMS. CHOROLOGY AND THE ICE PERIOD OF THE EARTH.

363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389

Chorological Facts and Causes. -- Origin of most Species in one Single Locality: "Centres of Creation." -- Distribution by Migration. -- Active and Passive Migrations of Animals and Plants. -- Flying Animals.--- Analogies between Birds and Insects. -- Bats.-- Means of Transport. -- Transport of Germs by Water and by Wind. -- Continual Change of the Area of Distribution by Elevations and Depressions of the Ground. -- Chorological Importance of Geological Processes. -- Influence of the Change of Climate.-- Ice or Glacial Period. -- Its Importance to Chorology. -- Importance of Migrations for the Origin of New Species. -- Isolation of Colonists. -- Wagner's Law of Migration.-- Connection between the Theory of Migration and the Theory of Seleotion. -- Agreement of its Results with the Theory of Descent.

CHAPTER XV.THEORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIVERSE AND OF THE EARTH. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. THE CARBON THEORY. THE PLASTID THEORY.

390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422

History of the Development of the Earth. -- Kant's Theory of the Development of the Universe, or the Cosmological Gas Theory.Development of Suns, Planets, and Moons. -- First Origin of Water. Comparison of Organisms and Anorgana. -- Organic and Inorganic Substances. -- Degrees of Density, or Conditions of Aggregation. -- Albuminous Combinations of Carbon. -- Plasson-bodies.-- Organic and Inorganic Forms. -- Crystals and Monera. -- Formless Organisms without Organs.-- Stereometrical Fundamental Forms of Crystals and of Organisms. -- Organic and Inorganic Forces.-- Vital Force. -- Growth and Adaptation in Crystals and in Organisms. -- Formative Tendencies of Crystals. -- Unity of Organic and Inorganic Nature.-Spontaneous Generation, or Archigony. -- Autogony and Plasmogony. -- Origin of Monera by Spontaneous Genera. tion. -- Origin of Cells from Monera. -- The Cell Theory. -- The Plastid Theory. -- Plastids or Structural-Units.--

ytods and Cells. --

our Different Kinds of Plastids.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.PLATES.

Fronticepiece Hand of Nine different Mammals.

I. Life History of a Simplest Organism after 188

II. & III. Germs or Embryos of Four after 334

V. Development of the Gastrula after 344

Note: The fronticepiece is Plate IV.

FIGURES.

Note: High resolution figures are available here.

1. Propagation of Moneron 191

2. Propagation of Amœba 193

3. Egg of Mammal 194

4. First Development of Mammal's Egg 195

5. The Human Egg Enlarged 339

6. Development of Mammal's Egg 343

7. Embryo of a Mammal or Bird 349

High resolution images of all plates and figures are here.