408 ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



must be struck with astonishment: for the same reason- 

 ing power which tells us plainly that most parts and 

 organs are exquisitely adapted for certain purposes, 

 tells us with equal plainness that these rudimentary or 

 atrophied organs, are imperfect and useless. In works 

 on natural history rudimentary organs are generally 

 said to have been created " for the sake of symmetry," 

 or in order " to complete the scheme of nature" ; but 

 this seems to me no explanation, merely a re-statement 

 of the fact. Would it be thought sufficient to say 

 that because planets revolve in elliptic courses round 

 the sun, satellites follow the same course round the 

 planets, for the sake of symmetry, and to complete the 

 scheme of nature ? An eminent physiologist accounts 

 for the presence of rudimentary organs, by supposing 

 that they serve to excrete matter in excess, or injurious 

 to the system ; but can we suppose that the minute 

 papilla, which often represents the pistil in male flowers, 

 and which is formed merely of cellular tissue, can thus 

 act ? Can we suppose that the formation of rudimentary 

 teeth, which are subsequently absorbed, can be of any 

 service to the rapidly growing embryonic calf by the 

 excretion of precious phosphate of lime ? When a man's 

 fingers have been amputated, imperfect nails sometimes 

 appear on the stumps : I could as soon believe that these 

 vestiges of nails have appeared, not from unknown laws 

 of growth, but in order to excrete horny matter, as that 

 the rudimentary nails on the fin of the manatee were 

 formed for this purpose. 



On my view of descent with modification, the origin 

 of rudimentary organs is simple. We have plenty of 

 cases of rudimentary organs in our domestic produc- 

 tions, — as the stump of a tail in tailless breeds, — the 

 vestige of an ear in earless breeds, — the reappearance 

 of minute dangling horns in hornless breeds of cattle, 

 more especially, according to Youatt, in young animals, 

 — and the state of the whole flower in the cauliflower. 

 We often see rudiments of various parts in monsters. 

 But I doubt whether any of these cases throw light on 

 the origin of rudimentary organs in a state of nature, 



