included a criticism of it in my History of Creation, as well as met
Virchow's attacks on anthropogeny.

Neither Virchow, nor Ranke, nor any other "exact" anthropologist, has
attempted to give any other natural explanation of the origin of man.
They have either set completely aside this "question of questions" as
a transcendental problem, or they have appealed to religion for its
solution. We have to show that this rejection of the rational
explanation is totally without justification. The fund of knowledge
which has accumulated in the progress of biology in the nineteenth
century is quite adequate to furnish a rational explanation, and to
establish the theory of the evolution of man on the solid facts of his
embryology.


CHAPTER 1.6. THE OVUM AND THE AMOEBA.

In order to understand clearly the course of human embryology, we must
select the more important of its wonderful and manifold processes for
fuller explanation, and then proceed from these to the innumerable
features of less importance. The most important feature in this sense,
and the best starting-point for ontogenetic study, is the fact that
man is developed from an ovum, and that this ovum is a simple cell.
The human ovum does not materially differ in form and composition from
that of the other mammals, whereas there is a distinct difference
between the fertilised ovum of the mammal and that of any other
animal.

(FIGURE 1.1. The human ovum, magnified 100 times. The globular mass of
yelk (b) is enclosed by a transparent membrane (the ovolemma or zona