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Updated: May 15, 2025
In entering the obscure paths of this phylogenetic labyrinth, clinging to the Ariadne-thread of the biogenetic law and guided by the light of comparative anatomy, we will first, in accordance with the methods we have adopted, discover and arrange those fragments from the manifold embryonic developments of very different animals from which the stem-history of man can be composed.
That is, according to phylogeny and ontogeny this or that sound, this or that smell, this or that sight, through association recapitulates the experience of the species and of the individual awakens the phylogenetic and ontogenetic memory. In other words, sights, sounds, and odors are symbols which awaken phylogenetic association.
I have already pointed out that this modification is distinctive of the Vertebrates and Tunicates. The phylogenetic appearance of the gill-clefts indicates the commencement of a new epoch in the stem-history of the Vertebrates. In the further ontogenetic development of the alimentary canal in the human embryo the appearance of the gill-clefts is the most important process.
According to Sherrington, the nervous system responds in action as a whole and to but one stimulus at a time. The integration of the individual as a whole occurs not alone in injury and fear, but also, though not so markedly, as a result of other phylogenetic associations, such as those of the chase and procreation.
The long series of animal forms which we must regard as the ancestors of our race has been confined within narrower and narrower circles as our phylogenetic inquiry has progressed. The great majority of known animals do not fall in the line of our ancestry, and even within the vertebrate stem only a small number are found to do so.
In discussing this subject I will raise only the question whether or not the specific character of the inaugural symptoms of some infectious diseases may be due to phylogenetic association. These inaugural symptoms are measurably a recapitulation of the leading phenomena of the disease in its completed clinical picture.
If the sole of the foot be repeatedly bruised or crushed by a stone, shock may be produced; if the stone be only lightly applied, then the consequent sensation of tickling causes a discharge of nervous energy. In like manner there have been implanted in the body other mechanisms of ancestral or phylogenetic origin whose purpose is the discharge of nervous energy for the good of the individual.
Just as the larynx, the ear, the nose, the sole of the foot, and the skin have all developed the specific type of nociceptors which are adapted for their specific protective purposes, and which, when adequately stimulated, respond in a specific manner in accordance with the law of phylogenetic association, so, the abdominal viscera have developed equally specific nociceptors as a protection against specific nocuous influences.
Translated into phylogenetic language, this "pithecometra-law," formulated in such masterly fashion by Huxley, is quite equivalent to the popular saying: "Man is descended from the apes." In the very first exposition of his profound natural classification Linne placed the anthropoid mammals at the head of the animal kingdom, with three genera: man, the ape, and the sloth.
However, this direct application of ontogenetic facts to phylogenetic ideas is possible, without limitations, only in a very small section of the animal kingdom.
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