10 



revealed vrhen Tve find it developed in idiots into the pointed 

 extremity of tlie ear of a lower animal, but there are 

 distinct though rudimentary muscles for the purpose of 

 drawing back, pidling forward, laying flat and otherwise 

 waggling the ears for the collection of the waves of sound. 

 I have known a professor of no small renown who, in 

 addition to his other remarkable intellectual qualities, 

 possessed the power of literally and intelligently pricking 

 his ears at will. But this accomplishment, though amiable 

 and attentive, has, unfortunately, become comparatively 

 rare. Nevertheless the needful muscles for its performance, 

 though unusable, exist in us all. What, on grounds other 

 than those of descent, is the meaning of these rudimentary 

 organs ? Throughout nature it is most conmaon to meet with 

 dwarfed organs, that subserve no practical purpose to their 

 possessor. A\Tiy, otherwise than by the theory of evolution, 

 should the cub of the lion be striped ? How is it that the 

 foetal whale possesses teeth which are absorbed and dis- 

 appear before birth ? How is it that among existing snakes 

 the python alone possesses a single tiny pair of useless 

 rudimentary limbs ? Why have certain beetles abortive and 

 unnecessary wings ? Why does the calf possess certain teeth 

 which never cut the gimi ? These questions are all solved 

 by the rejdy that organs useful to their ancestors become 

 rudimentary, and tend to disappear in such descendants as, 

 living under changed conditions of life, no longer reqiiire 

 them. 



In all ages successful prophecy has been regarded as a 

 pretty good evidence of truth, and Professor Huxley has 

 proved himself to be a prophet of no mean order. Most 

 vertebrates have five toes, and regarding the splint bones 

 of the horse as ^-udimentary toes (an assumption which 

 had been verified by the discovery of a fossil three-toed 

 horse), Huxley predicted the discovery of a five-toed pre- 

 decessor. This missing link has been foimd by Marsh of 

 America. We have now a series of fossil horses, discovered 

 in strata of different ages. In the older strata the five- 

 toed ancestors of the horse are found (or, strictly speaking, 

 four-toed horses with a rudimentary fifth toe) ; and from 

 subsequent strata there have been exhumed successive 

 modifications of this primitive horse, leading up to the 

 single-toed horse of to-day. Anchitherium leads along the 

 genealogical-tree, through Eohippus, Pliohippus, Proto- 

 hippus, Miohippus, and Mesohippus to the hippus of to-day. 



