Chap I.] RUDIMENTS. 17 



tion of this part in the quadrumana." I will conclude with 

 a quotation from Huxley, 17 who,- after asking, does man 

 originate in a different w r ay from a dog, bird, frog, or fish ? 

 says, " the reply is .not doubtful for a moment ; without 

 question, the mode of origin and the early stages of the 

 development of man are identical with those of the ani- 

 mals "immediately below him in the scale : without a cloubt 

 in these respects, he is far nearer to apes, than the apes 

 are to the dog." 



Rudiments, — This subject, though not intrinsically 

 more important than the last two, will for several reasons 

 be here treated with more fulness. 18 Not one of the 

 higher animals can be named which does not bear some 

 part in a rudimentary condition ; and man forms no ex- 

 ception to the rule. Rudimentary organs must be dis- 

 tinguished from those that are nascent ; though in some 

 cases the distinction is not easy. The former are either 

 absolutely useless, such as the marnmoe of male quad- 

 rupeds, or the incisor teeth of ruminants which never cut 

 through the gums ; or they are of such slight service to 

 their present possessors, that we cannot suppose that they 

 were developed under the conditions which now exisf. 

 Organs in this latter state are not strictly rudimentary, 

 but they are tending in this direction. Nascent organs, 

 on the other hand, though not fully developed, are of high 

 service to their possessors, and are capable of further de- 

 velopment. Rudimentary organs are eminently variable ; 

 and this is partly intelligible, as they are useless or nearly 



17 ' Man's Place in Nature,' p. 65. 



18 I had written a rough copy of this chapter before reading a valu- 

 able paper, " Caratteri rudimentali in ordine all' origine del uorno" ('An- 

 nuario della Soc. d. Nat.,' Modena, 1807, p. 81), by G. Canestrini, to 

 which paper I am considerably indebted. Hiickel has given admirable- 

 discussions on this whole subject, under the title of Dystcleology, in hia 

 * Generelle Morphologie ' and ' Schopfungsgeschichte.' 



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