146 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



_ On the view of each organism with all its 



separate parts having been specially created, 

 how utterly inexplicable is it that organs bearing the 

 plain stamp of inutility, such as the teeth in the embry- 

 onic calf, or the shriveled wings under the soldered wing- 

 covers of many beetles, should so frequently occur ! Na- 

 ture may be said to have taken pains to reveal her scheme 

 of modification, by means of rudimentary organs, of em- 

 bryological and homologous structures, but we are too 

 blind to understand her meaning. 



LETTERS RETAINED IN THE SPELLING BUT USELESS IN 

 PKONUNCIATION. 



Origin of There remains, however, this difficulty. 



Species, After an organ has ceased being used, and has 



page 4 L become in consequence much reduced, how 

 can it be still further reduced in size until the merest 

 vestige is left ; and how can it be finally quite obliterated ? 

 It is scarcely possible that disuse can go on producing any 

 further effect after the organ has once been rendered 

 functionless. Some additional explanation is here requi- 

 site which I can not give. If, for instance, it could be 

 proved that every part of the organization tends to vary 

 in a greater degree toward diminution than toward aug- 

 mentation of size, then we should be able to understand 

 how an organ which has become useless would be ren- 

 dered, independently of the effects of disuse, rudimentary, 

 and would at last be wholly suppressed ; for the variations 

 toward diminished size would no longer be checked by 

 natural selection. The principle of the economy of 

 growth, explained in a former chapter, by which the ma- 

 terials forming any part, if not useful to the possessor, 

 are saved as far as is possible, will perhaps come into play 



