mula amounts to
saying that, physiologically speaking, every Metazooen begins its life as
a Protozooen, and every Metaphyton as a Protophyton[10].

[10] Even when propagated by budding, a multicellular organism has
been ultimately derived from a germ-cell.

Now, if the theory of evolution is true, what should we expect to happen
when these germ-cells are fertilized, and so enter upon their severally
distinct processes of development? Assuredly we should expect to find
that the higher organisms pass through the same phases of development as
the lower organisms, up to the time when their higher characters begin
to become apparent. If in the life-history of species these higher
characters were gained by gradual improvement upon lower characters, and
if the development of the higher individual is now a general
recapitulation of that of its ancestral species, in studying this
recapitulation we should expect to find the higher organism successively
unfolding its higher characters from the lower ones through which its
ancestral species had previously passed. And this is just what we do
find. Take, for example, the case of the highest organism, Man. Like
that of all other organisms, unicellular or multicellular, his
development starts from the nucleus of a single cell. Again, like that
of all the Metazoa and Metaphyta, his development starts from the
specially elaborated nucleus of an egg-cell, or a nucleus which has been
formed by the fusion of a male with a female element[11]. When his
animality becomes established, he exhibits the fundamental anatomical
qualities which characterize such lowly animals as polyps and
jelly-fish. And even when he is marked off as a Vertebrate, it cannot be
said whether he is to be a fish, a reptile, a bird, or a beast. Later on
it becomes evident that he is to be a Mammal; but not till later still
can it be said to which order of mammals he belongs.

[11] It has already been stated that both parthenogenesis and
gemmation are ultimately derived from sexual reproduction. It may
now be added, on the other hand, that the earlier stages of
parthenogenesis have been observed to occur sporadically in all
sub-kingdoms of the Metaxoa, including the Vertebrata, and even the
highest class, Mammalia. These earlier stages consist in
_spontaneous_ segmentations of the ovum; so that even if a virgin
has ever conceived and borne a son, and even if such a fact in the