256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



PARASITIC CULTUBE 



By GEORGE E. DAWSON, Ph.D. 



SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 



TT is a fact well recognized in biology that a functionless organ is 

 -*- not tolerated by nature. In the evolution of life, whenever any 

 organic structure has fallen into disuse, it has forthwith come under 

 the law of atrophy and elimination. Until this law of atrophy and 

 elimination is satisfied, the useless organ is a drain upon the vitality of 

 the organism as a whole. It gives no equivalent for the support it 

 derives from the life of which it is a part. In other words, it is para- 

 sitic. As a parasitic organ, moreover, it not only uses up energy that 

 should go to the other organs that have a vital function to perform, 

 but it also tends to become diseased and thus to impair the health of 

 the entire organism. 



There are numerous illustrations in the human body of the disuse 

 and atrophy of organs, as well as of the incomplete elimination and 

 disease of such organs. Thus there are many muscular structures, such 

 as those of the pinna, epicranius and the platysma myoides, that are 

 at present functionless and far on the way to complete atrophy. These 

 useless organs are comparatively harmless, though, in strict truth, they 

 must be nourished at the expense of the rest of the organic life. There 

 are other functionless organs, however, that are not so harmless. Such 

 is the vermiform appendix, in man a useless and retrogressive structure, 

 which is apt to become the seat of serious disease. Such also are various 

 functionless ducts, as, for example, the parovarium, which frequently 

 become the seats of tumors, more or less malignant and destructive 

 of life. 



All these useless and, in a sense, parasitic organs of the human body, 

 which modern research in the fields of physical anthropology, anatomy 

 and embryology has brought to light and explained, point to laws of 

 development that have a profound significance for every department of 

 effort in which the control and improvement of man's life is an object. 

 These laws are already beginning to be recognized by scientific edu- 

 cators. It is seen that the education of the mind and of the body 

 consists essentially in doing what nature has been doing throughout the 

 biological ages — that is to say, producing favorable variations through 

 adjusting individuals to a progressive environment, perpetuating and 

 perfecting these variations as more efficient organs of life, and getting 

 rid of outgrown and useless organs so that no energy may be diverted 



