I THE DARWINIAN HYPOTHESIS 5 



yet., at the outset of his studies, he finds that no 

 adaptive reason whatsoever can be given for one- 

 half of the peculiarities of vegetable structure. 

 He also discovers rudimentary teeth, which are 

 never used, in the gums of the young calf and in 

 those of the foetal whale ; insects which never 

 bite have rudimental jaws, and others which 

 never fly have rudimental wings ; naturally blind 

 creatures have rudimental eyes ; and the halt 

 have rudimentary limbs. So, again, no animal or 

 plant puts on its perfect form at once, but all have 

 to start from the same point, however various the 

 course which each has to pursue. Not only men 

 and horses, and cats and dogs, lobsters and 

 beetles, periwinkles and mussels, but even the 

 very sponges and animalcules commence their 

 existence under forms which are essentially 

 undistinguishable ; and this is true of all the 

 infinite variety of plants. Nay, more, all living 

 beings march, side by side, along the high road of 

 development, and separate the later the more like 

 they are ; like people leaving church, who all go 

 down the aisle, but having reached the door, some 

 turn into the parsonage, others go down the 

 village, and others part only in the next parish. 

 A man in his development runs for a little while 

 parallel with, though never passing through, the 

 form of the meanest worm, then travels for a 

 space beside the fish, then journeys along with 

 the bird and the reptile for his fellow travellers ; 



