"evolution theory" in Germany, in contradistinction to the "epigenesis
theory." But as it is the latter that is called the "evolution theory"
in England, France, and Italy, and "evolution" and "epigenesis" are
taken to be synonymous, it seems better to call the first the
"pre-formation theory.") Its chief point is this: There is no new
formation of structures in the embryonic development of any organism,
animal or plant, or even of man; there is only a growth, or unfolding,
of parts which have been constructed or pre-formed from all eternity,
though on a very small scale and closely packed together. Hence, every
living germ contains all the organs and parts of the body, in the form
and arrangement they will present later, already within it, and thus
the whole embryological process is merely an evolution in the literal
sense of the word, or an unfolding, of parts that were pre-formed and
folded up in it. So, for instance, we find in the hen's egg not merely
a simple cell, that divides and subdivides and forms germinal layers,
and at last, after all kinds of variation and cleavage and
reconstruction, brings forth the body of the chick; but there is in
every egg from the first a complete chicken, with all its parts made
and neatly packed. These parts are so small or so transparent that the
microscope cannot detect them. In the hatching, these parts merely
grow larger, and spread out in the normal way.

When this theory is consistently developed it becomes a "scatulation
theory."* (* "Packing theory" would be the literal translation.
Scatula is the Latin for a case or box.--Translator.) According to its
teaching, there was made in the beginning one couple or one individual
of each species of animal or plant; but this one individual contained
the germs of all the other individuals of the same species who should
ever come to life. As the age of the earth was generally believed at
that time to be fixed by the Bible at 5000 or 6000 years, it seemed