Edentates.
Ungulates.
Cetacea.
Sirenia.
Insectivora.
Cheiroptera.
Carnassia.
Primates.

(This classification is given for the purpose of explaining Haeckel's
use of terms in this volume. The general reader should bear in mind
that it differs very considerably from more recent schemes of
classification. He should compare the scheme framed by Professor E.
Ray Lankester.)

***


THE EVOLUTION OF MAN.


CHAPTER 1.1. THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION.

The field of natural phenomena into which I would introduce my readers
in the following chapters has a quite peculiar place in the broad
realm of scientific inquiry. There is no object of investigation that
touches man more closely, and the knowledge of which should be more
acceptable to him, than his own frame. But among all the various
branches of the natural history of mankind, or anthropology, the story
of his development by natural means must excite the most lively