A first book in organic evolution - D. Kerfoot Shute

THIS LITTLE BOOK IS INSCRIBED TO
DR. THEODORE GILL,
NOT ONLY IN ADMIRATION FOR HIS HIGH SCHOLARSHIP
AND EMINENT SCIENTIFIC ATTAINMENTS, BUT
ALSO IN APPRECIATION OF MANY
ACTS OF COURTESY AND
KINDNESS TO THE
AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

This little book has been written chiefly for the use of students in the Medical Department of the Columbian University. It is designed to serve only as an introduction to the study of the Development Theory, and the subject has been presented, it is hoped, in a manner that will render it interesting and easily intelligible to the general reader.

The doctrine of Evolution itself enters so largely into all those departments of knowledge that especially concern the human race, and it has so profoundly modified our ideas with regard to the origin and destiny of man, that it has attained a commanding interest and become an almost necessary ingredient in what is called a liberal education.

An overwhelming majority of Anthropologists, Zoölogists, and Botanists, and a goodly number—constantly increasing—of Christian clergymen and laymen, have been almost compelled to believe in the truth of the Evolution Theory, whether they would or not, and they cannot but realize how very widely the theory extends into almost every department of human knowledge. No one, therefore, who aspires even to a moderate degree of intellectual culture, can well afford to exclude a clear understanding of what this Doctrine of Evolution really is. It is hoped this little work will render such a conception easily attainable.