Excerpt from Beginnings According to the Legends and According to the Truer Story

Hinsdale, 111 August 1. 1893. Preface to the Second Edition.

The call for another edition of Bncmumcs has enabled me to correct some of the faults of the first edition. A friend. Who teaches biology on the Pacific coast, has kindly pointed out several places where the language could be more exact and unambiguous, and on pages 43 and 79 such changes have been made in the plates. A similar change on page 41, too long to be put into the plates, is given here. The fuller and more scientifically correct statement would be as follows: But these single-celled plants and animals were subject to variations, and those individuals that took advantage of favorable variations became the ancestors of higher forms. The Ofispring of these higher forms varied and the ones possessing advantageous varia tions in time gave rise to still higher forms. The process went slowly on, each generation giving rise to something higher and better. From the one-celled animals developed Hydras, from these worms from the worms the lower vertebrates, and so on up to man. Thanks are due to this friend and to all who have kindly sent me their suggestions. The rapid sale of the book and its republication in Eu gland seem to show that it supplies a wide-felt want, and I trust that these changes and the added index may make it still more useful.

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