18

MAN'S GENEALOGICAL TREE.

And, forsooth, it is upon evidence like this, that we are asked to forego the cherished traditions of our forefathers, and

to substitute the audacious theories of yesterday for a record of creation which, for more than thirty long centuries, has successfully resisted the battering-ram of infidelity and unbelief, and for three thousand years, has braved the battle and the breeze of scepticism and doubt.

Let us now continue the study of our Genealogical Tree. From the man-like Ape, we are carried up to the Catarrhine or Old World Monkeys, a good specimen of which is seen in the Macacus Radiatus, or Bonnet Monkey, a member of the

true, we should be sanguine that, some day, proof would be found in fossils; but as the whole is a gratuitous hypothesis, the entire absence of fossil proof is a stern rebuke to the speculators."

(MACACUS.)

Figures I, II, VII, and VIII, are reproduced with permission from Mr. St. George Mivart's work, "Man and Apes."

THE OLD WORLD MONKEY.

21

third sub-family or Cynopithecinæ, a creature well known in this country, being frequently brought over by soldiers and sailors. It is less gentle and docile than some other monkeys, being a snappish, irritable animal, and when not indulged, is given to mischievous and spiteful tricks ; it is provided with a tail.

Mr. Darwin next traces us us to the Macropus Major, or Kangaroo, one of the Marsupials, and from this dignified beast, he carries us through reptiles and other organisms to the fishes, which we may suppose to be represented by the Sturgeon, Acipenser Sturio, when our ancestors swam in proud majesty in the azure waters of the sea. From the Sturgeon, we are conducted to the Amphioxus or Lancelet, the lowest known vertebrate animal, a creature looking very much like

C

22

THE AMPHIOXUS OR LANCELET.

a piece of jelly. This little animal is remarkable for its negative properties, having neither brain, head, nor heart; it has been described by a modern anatomist as a "headless, heartless fish, without red blood." * Professor Haeckel evidently regards the Amphioxus as representing one of the most important stages in man's pedigree, remarking that "the study of this interesting little animal throws great light upon the roots of our genealogical tree, forming as it does the line of demarcation between the vertebrates and the invertebrates." He calls it the last of the Mohicans, (der letzte Mohicaner) and

*

"The possession of a heart and of red blood is common to all vertebrates as well as to man, with one solitary exception, the Amphioxus or Lancelet alone having colourless blood and a simple cylindrical vessel in place of a heart." "Mivart, Lessons in Elementary Anatomy," P. 12.