TRANSMUTABLE. 207 



CHAPTER XI. 



MR. DARWIN lays great stress on the fact that 

 the whale, which, when adult, has no teeth, has 

 in the young state, distinct rudiments of such 

 organs; and upon their presence, although they 

 never cut through the gums in the calf. With 

 regard to the whale, it would have been fairer 

 if Mr. Darwin had stated that the great majority 

 of the cetaceae are provided with conical triangular 

 teeth, and it is only the balaenida, or whale 

 bone whale, in which the peculiarity he notices 

 is observed. We cannot account for the appear- 

 ance of these rudimentary teeth in the young of 

 one section of a family, any more than we can 

 account for the presence of teats in the males of 

 the mammalia. But that this should only occur 

 in one group of the family, and that the rudi- 

 mentary organs should be of the same type and 

 form as in the other Cetaceas, is to my mind 

 only an additional proof, were such needed, of 

 the beautiful uniformity which characterizes the 

 whole of nature. Were I to be allowed to specu- 

 late upon the subject, I could see in the various 

 uses to which the substitute for these teeth, whale- 

 bone is applied by man another proof of the 

 design and beneficence of the Creator. 



In the order of creation there is a singular 

 gradation of organs observed frequently, in members 



