says that "the study of its comparative anatomy and ontogenesis proves to a certainty the former existence of animals without a skull and without a brain amongst the ancestors of Man!"*

By the next and last step of the Darwinian ladder, we are carried up to the Ascidian, which is described as an invertebrate hermaphrodite marine creature, permanently attached to a support, and immovably fixed at the bottom of the sea by root-like appendages, whereas its near relative, the Amphioxus, can swim freely like a fish. It belongs to the Molluscoida of Huxley, a lower division of the great kingdom of Mollusca. The Ascidian (ùokós, a skin bottle) consists of a simple tough leathery sac, with two small projecting orifices, and its appearance very

Haeckel op cit, Pp. 508, 584.

much resembles a double-necked jar. "At first sight," says Professor Huxley, "you might hardly suspect the animal nature of one of these singular organisms, when freshly taken from the sea; but if you touch it, the stream of water which it

b

FIG. III.-THE ASCIDIAN.
OUR PRE-HISTORIC ANCESTOR.

squirts out of each aperture reveals the existence of a great contractile power within." Of the two apertures, A serves as a mouth, and is often surrounded by a circle of tentacles; B is the anal orifice,

MAN'S REMOTE ANCESTOR.

25

and C is the base of attachment, by which the animal fastens itself to a bit of seaweed or to a rock. This interesting creature is here represented, in order to enable one to form some idea of man's very The engraving is

remote

ancestors.

taken from Professor Huxley's "Elements of Comparative Anatomy," the author having kindly permitted me to copy it. Thus the lofty faculties of Man were once in embryo in a thing like a tadpole! The mind of Newton once lay hid in a creature which "hardly appeared like an

* I have not thought it desirable minutely to describe the long line of diversified forms through which Mr. Darwin ultimately traces us up to our common ancestor, the Ascidian; for a more detailed description of Man's Genealogy from the Darwinian point of view, I would refer the reader to an interesting and highly scientific treatise, by Dr. Bree, of Colchester, entitled "Fallacies of Darwinism," from which I have obtained most valuable information in the compilation of this work.

26

THE ASCIDIAN DESCENT OF MAN.

animal-which consisted merely of a simple tough leathery sac, and which stuck to a bit of sea-weed that it might not be carried away by the tide.” *

Thus far Mr. Darwin, but my description of the object, aim, and end of the Evolution theory, as applied to the descent

* Dr. Payne Smith, Dean of Canterbury, has the following reflections upon the Ascidian descent of man. "What an alarming thought, that at a period separated from us by such vast geologic ages, that, according to the nebular hypothesis, held by so many of our leading astronomers as a probable theory, this whole universe was a mass of heated vapour; what an alarming thought that the very existence of man should have depended upon a jelly bag sticking to a stone and sucking up water! Alas! there was then no water, no stones, no jelly bags, and therefore there are now no men! Man escapes, poor thing, from his humble parentage: he need not feel his ears to find the proof of his monkeyhood: but his escape costs him dear. What with astronomy and biology, men of science between them have cleared us out of existence. Scientifically, man is "Modern Scepticism," P. 150.

no more."

PROFESSOR HAECKEL'S MONER.

27

of man, would be incomplete without a further reference to Professor Haeckel's views. Mr. Darwin, as we have seen, is content with tracing man's descent from an Ascidian Mollusk, and he is also satisfied with deriving all animals and plants from about eight or ten progenitors, whereas, his most valiant disciple, Professor Haeckel, goes much further back, through a complete family tree of twenty-two branches, and having reached Mr. Darwin's Ascidian, he carries us seven stages higher up, through sponges, diatoms, worms, and other organisms, till he eventually traces us all to one primordial germ-a Moner, produced by self generation (Archigony) from inorganic matter during the Laurentian period.

This Moner-povýpns-the lowest imaginable grade of organic individuality, he