Fig. 175—Human embryo, five weeks old, half an inch long, seen from the right, magnified. (From Russel Bardeen and Harmon Lewis.) In the undissected head we see the eye, mouth, and ear. In the trunk the skin and part of the muscles have been removed, so that the cartilaginous vertebral column is free; the dorsal root of a spinal nerve goes out from each vertebra (towards the skin of the back). In the middle of the lower half of the figure part of the ribs and intercostal muscles are visible. The skin and muscles have also been removed from the right limbs; the internal rudiments of the five fingers of the hand, and five toes of the foot, are clearly seen within the fin-shaped plate, and also the strong network of nerves that goes from the spinal cord to the extremities. The tail projects under the foot, and to the right of it is the first part of the umbilical cord.
How the five fingers or toes with their blood-vessels gradually differentiate within the simple fin-like structure of the limbs can be seen in the instance of the lizard in Fig. 174. They are formed in just the same way in man: in the human embryo of five weeks the five fingers can clearly be distinguished within the fin-plate (Fig. 175).
The careful study and comparison of human embryos with those of other vertebrates at this stage of development is very instructive, and reveals more mysteries to the impartial student than all the religions in the world put together. For instance, if we compare attentively the three successive stages of development that are represented, in twenty different amniotes we find a remarkable likeness. When we see that as a fact twenty different amniotes of such divergent characters develop from the same embryonic form, we can easily understand that they may all descend from a common ancestor.
Figs. 176–178—Embryos of the bat (Vespertilio murinus) at three different stages. (From Oscar Schultze.) Fig. 176: Rudimentary limbs (v fore-leg, h hind-leg). l lenticular depression, r olfactory pit, ok upper jaw, uk lower jaw, k2, k3, k4 first, second and third gill-arches, a amnion, n umbilical vessel, d yelk-sac. Fig. 177: Rudiment of flying membrane, membranous fold between fore and hind leg. n umbilical vessel, o ear-opening, f flying membrane. Fig. 178: The flying membrane developed and stretched across the fingers of the hands, which cover the face.
In the first stage of development, in which the head with the five cerebral vesicles is already clearly indicated, but there are no limbs, the embryos of all the vertebrates, from the fish to man, are only incidentally or not at all different from each other. In the second stage, which shows the limbs, we begin to see differences between the embryos of the lower and higher vertebrates; but the human embryo is still hardly distinguishable from that of the higher mammals. In the third stage, in which the gill-arches have disappeared and the face is formed, the differences become more pronounced. These are facts of a significance that cannot be exaggerated.[[27]]
[27] Because they show how the most diverse structures may be developed from a common form. As we actually see this in the case of the embryos, we have a right to assume it in that of the stem-forms. Nevertheless, this resemblance, however great, is never a real identity. Even the embryos of the different individuals of one species are usually not really identical. If the reader can consult the complete edition of this work at a library, he will find six plates illustrating these twenty embryos.
If there is an intimate causal connection between the processes of embryology and stem-history, as we must assume in virtue of the laws of heredity, several important phylogenetic conclusions follow at once from these ontogenetic facts. The profound and remarkable similarity in the embryonic development of man and the other vertebrates can only be explained when we admit their descent from a common ancestor. As a fact, this common descent is now accepted by all competent scientists; they have substituted the natural evolution for the supernatural creation of organisms.