Encouraged by these great advances of modern phylogeny, and with the support of many new discoveries in comparative anatomy and embryology, in which a number of distinguished observers were at work, I was able in 1874 to venture on the first attempt to trace continuously the whole story of man's evolution. In doing so, I took my stand on the firm ground of the biogenetic law, seeking to give a phylogenetic cause for each fact of embryology. My _Evolution of Man_, which made the first attempt to accomplish this difficult task, was materially improved and enlarged as new and important discoveries were made. The latest edition (1903 [1904 in English]) contains thirty chapters distributed in two volumes, the first of which deals with embryology (or ontogeny), and the second with the development of species (or phylogeny). Though I was quite conscious that there were bound to be gaps and weak points in these first attempts to frame a natural anthropogeny, I had hoped they would have some influence on modern anthropology, and especially that the first sketches of a genealogical tree of the animal world would prove a stimulus to fresh research and improvement. In this I was much mistaken. The dominant school of anthropology, especially in Germany, declined to suffer the introduction of the theory of evolution, declaring it to be an unfounded hypothesis, and described our carefully prepared ancestral trees as mere figments. This was due, in the first place, to the great authority of the founder and president (for many years) of the German Anthropological Society, Rudolf Virchow, as I briefly pointed out in the previous chapter. In view of the great regard that is felt for this distinguished scientist, and the extent to which his powerful opposition prevented the spread of the theory, it is necessary to deal more fully with his position on the subject. I am still further constrained to do this because of the erroneous views of it that are circulating, and my own fifty years' acquaintance with my eminent teacher enables me to put them right.