The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of ManHaeckel, Ernst
Science
The Last Link: Our Present Knowledge of the Descent of Man
Haeckel, Ernst
Human beings -- Origin
Hitherto we have dealt with his general work only, a résumé of which
he gave for many years in a course of thirty lectures before an
audience composed of 'all sorts and conditions of men.' Students of
biology and of medicine side by side with theologians, incipient and
ordained, jurists, political economists, and philosophers, crowded his
lecture-room during the 'seventies to hear the master explaining the
'natural history of creation' or the mysteries of anthropogenesis.
Another course of eighty lectures during the winter semester was, and
still is, devoted to a systematic treatment of zoology, while practical
classes are reserved for the more select.
His winning personality and fascinating eloquence, combined with a
clear and concise delivery, have gained the enthusiastic admiration of
many a student who went to the quiet University town in order to learn
with his own ears and eyes.
_List of Separate Publications by Professor Haeckel._
'Biologische Studien. I.: Studien ueber die Moneren und andere
Protisten.' Leipzig, 1870 (out of print). He was the first to
make observations on the natural history of the Monera, living
bits of protoplasm, devoid even of a nucleus--_e.g._, _Protogenes
primordialis_, _Protomyxa aurantiaca_.
'Monographie der Radiolarien.' Berlin, 1862-88. With 171 plates.
'Entwicklungsgeschichte der Siphonophoren.' Utrecht, 1869.
'Plankton-Studien. Vergleichende Untersuchungen ueber die Bedeutung und
Zusammensetzung der pelagischen Fauna und Flora.' Jena, 1880.
'Metagenesis und Hypogenesis von Aurelia aurita.' Jena, 1881.
'Monographie der Geryoniden oder Ruesselquallen.' Leipzig, 1865.
'Generelle Morphologie der Organismen.' 2 vols. Berlin, 1866.
'Anthropogenie oder Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menschen,' 1874; 4th
edition, 1891.
'Natuerliche Schoepfungs-Geschichte.' 2 vols. Berlin, 1st edition,
1868; 9th edition, 1898. This work has been translated into most
European languages (the first edition in English, under the title
'Natural History of Creation' in 1873; the eighth in 1892).
'Monographie der Kalkschwaemme.' 3 vols. Berlin, 1872 (out of print).
With the subtitle, 'An Attempt to solve analytically the Problem of
the Origin of Species.' In this work, illustrated by sixty plates, he
showed that the Calcispongia are individually so yielding, so adaptive
to external influences, that it is practically impossible to break up
the whole group into anything like satisfactory species or genera.
According to predilection, we can distinguish either 1 genus with only
3 species, or 3, 21, 43 genera, with 21, 111, 181, or 289 species
respectively.
In this work, in 1872, Haeckel established the homology of the two
primary layers, ecto- and endoderm, throughout the Metazoa. The attempt
to do the same for the four secondary layers, as made in the second
part of his 'Gastræa-theory,' failed. It caused an enormous amount of
research, hitherto without a satisfactory solution of the problem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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