THE WEDGE OF EVOLUTION. 271 



before us affirms, for example, the canine and remnant teeth 

 have been much reduced in size, and, if Mr. Darwin's theory 

 is correct, are probably hi the course of ultimate extinction. 

 Now, the function of a canine tooth is to tear, not grind. If 

 animals that now use their canines for tearing flesh were com- 

 pelled to subsist on vegetable food, there would perhaps be no 

 marked change in a generation, but there certainly would be 

 in a series of generations. We therefore conclude that horse 

 dentures have adapted themselves to a gradual but great change 

 in the animal's mode of existence, a gradual departure from 

 the original custom of subsisting on food which demanded 

 tearing teeth, and that it took to vegetarianism naturally. 

 Fossil remains would force this conclusion on us, however 

 much we might desire to doubt it. But why should we have 

 such a desire ? To admit development, say some, is but the 

 thin end of the wedge of Evolution. Be it so. It is the func- 

 tion of scientific wedges to split old and false notions, and who 

 ever heard of a man putting the thick end of a wedge in first? 

 Whether development is the thin end of the wedge of Evolu- 

 tion or not we do not care much to inquire. If a man studies 

 horses' teeth of to-day as well as those of human beings, he 

 will come to the conclusion that in both there are signs of great 

 development when compared with the teeth of thousands of 

 years ago. He will observe not change merely, but signs of a 

 higher order of being signs of an evolution of the superior 

 from the inferior. 



" To some people Evolution is a bugbear, and the idea that 

 human beings are capable of physical development is not much 

 less. We advise such people not to read Mr. Clarke's book. It 

 would trouble them. They might cast it into the fire and thus 

 waste their money. But intelligent seekers after truth, those 

 who find the ' gulf of doubt ' in which they are floundering 

 too sunless for their light-loving souls ; those who are not 

 afraid to meet the doctrines of scientific men face to face, may 

 read this work with profit. Without desiring to disparage its 

 author, we may say that its chief value lies in the fact that it 

 is composed largely of selections from the works of men of 

 special knowledge on the subject of the treatise and of various 

 germane subjects. Much credit is due to him for collecting in 

 so compact a form such a large quantity of valuable matter, 



