372 DARWINIANA. 



ther and explain the cause of the symmetry and how 

 abortive organs came to be, is more to the purpose, 

 but it introduces quite another principle than that of 

 design. The difficulty recurs in a somewhat different 

 form when an organ is useful and of exquisite per- 

 fection in some species, but functionless in another. 

 An organ, such as an eye, strikes us by its exquisite 

 and, as we say, perfect adaptation and utility in some 

 animal ; it is found repeated, still useful but destitute 

 of many of its adaptations, in some animal of lower 

 grade ; in some one lower still it- is rudimentary and 

 useless. It is asked, If the first was so created for its 

 obvious and actual use, and the second for such use as 

 it has, what was the design of the third ? One more 

 case, in which use after all is well subserved, we cite 

 from the article already much quoted from : 



" It is well known that certain fishes (Pleuronecta) display 

 the singularity of having both eyes on the same side of their 

 head, one eye being placed a little higher than the other. This 

 arrangement has its utility ; for the Pleuronecta, swimming on 

 their side quite near the bottom of the sea, have little occasion 

 for their eyesight except to observe what is going on above 

 them. But the detail to which we would call notice is, that 

 the original position of the eyes is symmetrical in these fishes, 

 and that it is only at a certain point of their development that 

 the anomaly is manifested, one of the eyes passing to the other 

 side of the head. It is almost inconceivable that an intelligent 

 being should have selected such an arrangement ; and that, in- 

 tending the eyes to be used only on one side of the head, he 

 should have placed them originally on different sides." 



Then the waste of being is enormous, far beyond 

 the common apprehension. Seeds, eggs, and other 

 germs, are designed to be plants and animals, but not 



