34 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



and several other infelicitous errors will be rectified in the 

 next edition of "God — or Gorilla." 



In the next chapter we shall have occasion to refer again 

 to Dorlodot's book. For the present, however, his work need 

 not concern us, while in that of Mr. McCann we single out but 

 one point as germane to our subject, namely, the latter's inade- 

 quate rebuttal of the evolutionary argument from homology. 

 The futility of his method, which consists in matching insigni- 

 ficant differences against preponderant resemblances, and in 

 exclaiming with ironic incredulity: ''Note extraordinary resem- 

 blances!" becomes painfully evident, so soon as proper pre- 

 sentation enables us to appreciate the true force of the argu- 

 ment he is striving to refute. Functionally the foot of a 

 Troglodyte ape may be a "hand," but structurally it is the 

 homologue of the human foot, and not of the human hand ; nor 

 is this homology effectually disposed of by stressing the dis- 

 similarity of the hallux, whilst one remains discreetly reticent 

 concerning the similarity of the calcaneum. For two reasons, 

 therefore, the irrelevance of Mr. McCann's reply is of special 

 interest here: (1) because it illustrates concretely the danger 

 of rendering a refutation inconsequential and inept by failing 

 to plumb the full depth of the difficulty one is seeking to solve ; 

 (2) because it shows that it is vain to attempt to remove 

 man's body from the scope of this argument by citing the in- 

 considerable structural differences which distinguish him from 

 the ape, so that, unless the argument from homology proves 

 upon closer scrutiny to be inherently inconclusive, its applica- 

 bility to the human body is a foregone conclusion, and implies 

 with irresistible logic the common ancestry of men and apes. 



Such are the reflections suggested by the meager measure of 

 justice which Mr. McCann accords to the strongest zoological 

 evidence in favor of evolution, and they contain in germ a 

 feasible program for the present chapter, which, accordingly, 

 will address itself: first, to the task of ascertaining the true 

 significance of homology in the abstract as well as the full 

 extent of its application in the concrete; second, to that of 



