i 2 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



the most characteristic peculiarity in the human struct- 

 ure;" but in an embryo, about an inch in length, Prof. 

 Wyman* found " that the great toe was shorter than the 

 others; and, instead of being parallel to them, projected at 

 an angle from the side of the foot, thus corresponding with 

 the permanent condition of this part in the quadrumana." 

 I will conclude witli a quotation from Huxley, f who after 

 asking, does man originate in a different way 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 animals immediately below him in the scale: 

 without a doubt 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 two last, will for several reasons be 

 treated here more fully. J Not one of the higher animals 

 can be named which does not bear some part in a rudi- 

 mentary condition; and man forms no exception to the 

 rule. Rudimentary organs must be distinguished from 

 those that are nascent; though in some cases the distinction 

 is not easy. The former are either absolutely useless, such 

 as the mammae of male quadrupeds, 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 

 can hardly suppose that they were developed under the 

 conditions which now exist. 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 devel- 

 oped, are of high service to their possessors, and are capa- 

 ble of further development. Rudinifiiitary organs are 

 eminently variable; and this is partly intelligible, as they 

 are uselfiss,--X>r nearly useless, and _consequently are no 



* "Proc. Soc. Nat. Hist.," Boston 1863, vol. ix, p. 185. 



f "Man's Place in Nature," p. 65. 



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

 able paper, **Caratteri rudimentali in ordine all' origine dell' uomo" 

 (" Annuario della Soc. d. Nat.," Modena, 1867, p. 81), by G. Canes- 

 trini, to which paper 1 am considerably indebted. Hiickel has given 

 admirable discussions on this whole subject, under the title of Dys- 

 teleology, in his " Generelle Morphologic" and " SchOpf ungsge- 

 schichte." 



