Marshall J. Gauvin
Pittsburgh, Pa., August 30, 1921.
List of Illustrations
| Charles Darwin | Frontispiece | |
| Fig. 1.— | The Great Nebula in Orion | [15] |
| Fig. 2.— | The Great Spiral Nebula | [17] |
| Fig. 3.— | An Elongated Irregular Nebula | [19] |
| Fig. 4.— | Lunar Craters: Hyginus and Albategnius | [21] |
| Fig. 5.— | The Cluster in Hercules | [23] |
| Fig. 6.— | A Pillar of Stratified Rocks | [25] |
| Fig. 7.— | Segmentation of the Fertilized Ovum and Gastrulation | [27] |
| Fig. 8.— | Cambrian Fossils and Upper Silurian Fossils | [29] |
| Fig. 9.— | The Amphioxus | [31] |
| Fig. 10.— | The Earliest Known Form of Fish and | |
| Three Other Early Forms of Fishes | [33] | |
| Fig. 11.— | Lampreys—The Mouth of a Lamprey | [35] |
| Fig. 12.— | Lung Fishes | [37] |
| Fig. 13.— | The Flying Fish | [39] |
| Fig. 14.— | The Climbing Perch | [41] |
| Fig. 15.— | The Evolution of the Frog | [43] |
| Fig. 16.— | The Head of the Famous Archaegosaurus | [45] |
| Fig. 17.— | The Ceratosaurus | [47] |
| Fig. 18.— | The Archaeopteryx | [49] |
| Fig. 19.— | The Duck-bill, known in Australia as the Platypus | [51] |
| Fig. 20.— | A Kangaroo with her Young One in her Pouch | [53] |
| Fig. 21.— | The Pariasaurus Baini | [55] |
| Fig. 22.— | The Ring-tailed Lemur of Madagascar | [57] |
| Fig. 23.— | The Slow Loris—another type of Lemur | [59] |
| Fig. 24.— | The Baboon | [61] |
| Fig. 25.— | The White-handed Gibbon | [63] |
| Fig. 26.— | A Female Gorilla | [65] |
| Fig. 27.— | Male Giant Gorilla | [67] |
| Fig. 28.— | The Baldheaded Chimpanzee | [69] |
| Fig. 29.— | The Skeleton of Man and of the Four Anthropoid Apes | [71] |
| Fig. 30.— | Skull of the Fossil Ape-man of Java | [73] |
| Fig. 31.— | A Restoration of the Neanderthal Man | [75] |
| Fig. 32.— | Evolution of the Proboscidea | [77] |
| Fig. 33.— | Eohippus, the “Dawn Horse,” from the Lower Eocene Rocks | [79] |
| Fig. 34.— | Fossil Antlers | [81] |
| Fig. 35.— | Antlers of One Deer at Different Stages of Their | |
| Development | [83] | |
| Fig. 36.— | Embryos of Four Mammals | [85] |
| Fig. 37.— | Tail of a Six-Months-old Boy | [87] |
| Fig. 38.— | The Vermiform Appendix in the Orang, | |
| in Man, and in the Human Foetus | [89] | |
| Fig. 39.— | The Rudimentary Muscles of the Ear | [91] |
| Fig. 40.— | Hair Tracts on Arms of Man and Ape | [93] |
| Fig. 41.— | The Head of Miss Julia Pastrana | [95] |
| Fig. 42.— | The Brains of Anthropoid Apes and Men | [99] |
| Fig. 43.— | Joe and Sallie at Home | [103] |
| Fig. 44.— | The Genealogical Tree of Humanity | [107] |
| Fig. 45.— | Two Pigs | [111] |
| Fig. 46.— | Dogs | [115] |
| Fig. 47.— | Pigeons | [117] |
The Illustrated
Story of Evolution
Our fathers, many ages ago, looked out upon the world with mingled feelings of reverence and fear. They saw the sun that dazzled their eyes with the brightness of his beams as he flamed his way across the path of day; they saw the white light of the moon, hung like a spirit lamp amid the clouds that sailed over the face of night; they saw the stars, now spangling the darkness with the glory of their sheen, now veiling their faces with the sable void; they saw the infinite variety of plants, the animals of every size and form; they saw man himself, the master of the earth; and they would know something of the mighty scheme. They did not dream of natural law, but they were curious. Destitute of science, they were full of wonder. What could be the driving power back of what they saw? Existence was a challenge. They must essay an explanation. Their minds refused to rest content in ignorance. They must know how things came to be.
It was the age of gods. Gods were in the wind and rain, in the flood and flame, in the roar of the thunder and the echo of the forest gorge, in the harvest that sustained and the disease that destroyed—in everything that helped or hurt the sons of men. Man could do things; the gods could do things too. Man could build a home; the gods could build a world. So reasoned our primitive fathers. Of this reasoning were born the creation stories of the ancient religions; and these stories, coming down to our day, have fixed the beliefs of countless generations of men.
In one of these creation myths, regarded as of divine authority because it is found in the Bible, we are naively told that the world with its myriad forms of life and the star-studded universe beyond, were created in six days; and as this childish story is inseparably interwoven with popular religious notions, millions still regard it as sacredly true.
But this is an age of science, of a growing knowledge of reality. During the last few generations, the facts of nature have been studied as they never were studied before. As a result of this study, nature has yielded to man’s inquiring mind a growing knowledge of her methods. This knowledge is now accepted by the educated world as the science of evolution.
