On this firm foundation provided by Remak for _histogeny,_ or the science of the formation of the tissues, our knowledge has been gradually built up and enlarged in detail. There have been several attempts to restrict and even destroy Remak’s principles. The two anatomists, Reichert (of Berlin) and Wilhelm His (of Leipzic), especially, have endeavoured in their works to introduce a new conception of the embryonic development of the vertebrate, according to which the two primary germinal layers would not be the sole sources of formation. But these efforts were so seriously marred by ignorance of comparative anatomy, an imperfect acquaintance with ontogenesis, and a complete neglect of phylogenesis, that they could not have more than a passing success. We can only explain how these curious attacks of Reichert and His came to be regarded for a time as advances by the general lack of discrimination and of grasp of the true object of embryology. Wilhelm His published, in 1868, his extensive Researches into the _Earliest Form of the Vertebrate Body,_[9] one of the curiosities of embryological literature. The author imagines that he can build a “mechanical theory of embryonic development” by merely giving an exact description of the embryology of the chick, without any regard to comparative anatomy and phylogeny, and thus falls into an error that is almost without parallel in the history of biological literature. As the final result of his laborious investigations, His tells us “that a comparatively simple law of growth is the one essential thing in the first development. Every formation, whether it consist in cleavage of layers, or folding, or complete division, is a consequence of this fundamental law.” Unfortunately, he does not explain what this “law of growth” is; just as other opponents of the theory of selection, who would put in its place a great “law of evolution,” omit to tell us anything about the nature of this. Nevertheless, it is quite clear from His’s works that he imagines constructive Nature to be a sort of skilful tailor. The ingenious operator succeeds in bringing into existence, by “evolution,” all the various forms of living things by cutting up in different ways the germinal layers, bending and folding, tugging and splitting, and so on. [9] None of His’s works have been translated into English.