LEADING ARGUMENTS FOR DESCENT 185 



changes of diet, to hypercivilization in other 

 words; yet there are many pathologists who be- 

 lieve that this organ serves some useful intestinal 

 purpose, since it seems to close up only under 

 morbid conditions. Prominent pathologists, in 

 fact, believe that the appendix, with its abundant 

 lymphatic tissue, serves a purpose for the intes- 

 tines similar to that served by the tonsils for the 

 palate. 9 



No solid or structural rudimentary organ in 

 man can with certainty be pointed out. The slight 

 extension of the spinal column, which in rare cases 

 may serve the sensational magazine-writer as an 

 instance of a "tailed human baby," is of no scien- 

 tific weight, since the far more complex phenome- 

 non of six perfect fingers on each hand not only 

 occurs, but is apparently hereditary in certain 

 circumstances; and these new bone-structures are 

 assuredly not vestigial or rudimentary. In view 

 of our present ignorance concerning the causes of 

 such phenomena, the vestigial argument for the 

 evolution of man is devoid of all logical value. 



From all that we have seen it is plain that there 

 can be no reason for dogmatizing upon the sub- 

 ject of evolution as applied to man. Yet in the 

 volume of the Yale professors quoted in our first 

 chapters, as in countless other university produc- 

 tions, we have man's descent from the ape detailed 

 with minute preciseness, for, we are told: "Man's 

 Cf. ibid. 



