CREATION BY EVOLUTION
development of structures; indeed, function and structure are merely different aspects of life. All the general functions of living things are present in germ cells. In its growth every egg or sperm cell takes in nourishment, which it transforms into its own protoplasm; it divides at intervals and thus reproduces; it is sensitive, or capable of responding to stimuli. These are the fundamental functions of all living things, and every germ cell has them, but as development advances each of these functions becomes more specialized and more perfect. Nutrition, reproduction, sensation, which are all present in the egg cell, become, in the course of development, localized in cells specialized for each of these functions. But just as in the development of structures new parts, which were not present in the germ, appear by a process of “creative synthesis,” so new functions appear in the course of development, which are not merely sorted out of the general functions that were present at the beginning but are created by the combination and interaction of parts and functions already present. In this way the highest and most marvellous functions develop out of egg cells — even the special senses, instincts, and higher psychical faculties of animals and man. All are products of development or evolution — that is, they have come as a result of new combinations and transformations of the functions present in germ cells. Every step in this process is natural; yet that a complex animal, even a man, with all his godlike faculties, can develop out of a germ cell is surely the climax of all wonders!
The Recapitulation Theory
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the belief was general that higher animals pass through stages in their development that correspond to the adult condition of lower animals. In 1828 von Baer, “the father of comparative
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