tree constructed by Haeckel and his associates as wholly hypothetical
and hence unjustified; he rightly remarks that their method smacks of
the closet. He finds fault with them chiefly because they predicated
actuality of this imaginary family-tree and fancied that the historical
research of the future would have but isolated facts to establish.

In speaking of the palaeontological research of the last few decades,
Steinmann says: "In the light of recent research, fossil discoveries
have frequently appeared less intelligible and more ambiguous than
before, and in those cases in which an attempt has been made to bring
the descent-system into agreement with the actual facts, the
incongruity between the two has become obvious." Thus, for instance,
the well-known archaeopteryx is not, as was maintained, a connecting
link between reptile and bird, but a member of a blindly ending side
branch. In fact palaeontological research has proven incapable of
finding the transitions between different species, clearly determined
by the theory. But the overwhelming abundance of matter called for new
endeavors to master it. It was then further discovered--Steinmann finds
an illustration of this fact in the echinodermata--that the well-known
"fundamental law of biogenesis" of Haeckel can be accepted only in a
very restricted sense and may even lead to conclusions absolutely
false. We desire to remark here that a "fundamental principle" should
never mislead; if it does so, it is not a fundamental principle.

It is of importance to know that according to palaeontological
investigation, empiric systematizing and phylogenetic classification do
not always coincide, as, for instance, in the case of the ammonites.
Acording to palaeontological investigation the great systematic
categories are only grades of organization. Hence present day
systematizing is being more and more discarded, and the said
categories--as indeed also the lesser groups of forms--must be of
polyphyletic origin, that is, they must have descended from different
primitive stocks. It may be asked: What bearing has this principle of
multiple origins? For a long time reptiles were the predominating
vertebrates; when mammals and birds appeared, numerous, varied and
strange saurians inhabited land and sea; but "with the end of the
chalk-period most saurians seem to have vanished suddenly from the
scene, and soon we behold the mainlands and oceans inhabited by mammals
of most diver