HOW THE MAMMALS DEVELOPED When the idea of evolution first began to be much discussed, especially after the publication of the "Origin of Species," there were several points which appeared to be more than commonly difficult of explanation. It did not seem impossible that the various types of domesticated cattle should have descended from a common ancestor. It did not seem difficult of comprehension that the dog might once have been a wolf. Though not quite so credible, it did not seem absurd that the tigers, lions, and leopards should have once all been alike. The resemblance between these are strong enough to make the idea seem conceivable. Though men were willing to concede this much, they insisted that the great branches of the animal kingdom varied so widely from each other as to make it certain that each was a separate creation. It was particularly objected that the mammals differed so entirely from other animals in several important particulars that a special divine act was necessary for their appearance. The mammals have a furry covering entirely different from the clothing of any other animal in the kingdom, and have warm blood, which is found nowhere else except among the birds. But particularly their method of producing their young seemed so entirely different from that of any other group that here a special creation was deemed absolutely necessary. Other young creatures are produced from eggs laid by the parent and subsequently hatched. The young of the mammals are born alive and comparatively well developed. In addition, their first food, the milk of the mother, is so entirely different from the food of any other creature that this again seemed to involve a separate creation. Gradually we have come to understand the whole matter of reproduction very much better. Minute and careful dissections of rabbits, of dogs and cats, of animals slaughtered for food, with occasional post-mortem examinations of human beings in various stages of the development of the young, leave us no longer in doubt concerning the main features of the process. The better we come to understand it the more clearly it becomes evident that in the development of the mammals we have no new procedure, but, as in so many other activities, new developments of an old process. There are two entirely different methods by which new animals and plants may arise. One sees sometimes in the home of a friend a geranium of particular beauty, the like of which he would be glad to possess. The accommodating friend cuts a small piece from the geranium. This is stuck into poor but well-watered ground, develops roots, and eventually grows into a geranium stalk exactly like the one from which it came and of which it is in reality only a detached part.