i THE INTRODUCTION OF NEW SPECIES 17 



necessarily most imperfect and fragmentary, as much so as 

 our knowledge of the present organic world would be, were 

 we forced to make our collections and observations only in 

 spots equally limited in area and in number with those 

 actually laid open for the collection of fossils. Now, the 

 hypothesis of Professor Forbes is essentially one that assumes 

 to a great extent the completeness of our knowledge of the 

 whole series of organic beings which have existed on the 

 earth. This appears to be a fatal objection to it, inde- 

 pendently of all other considerations. It may be said that 

 the same objections exist against every theory on such a sub- 

 ject, but this is not necessarily the case. The hypothesis put 

 forward in this paper depends in no degree upon the com- 

 pleteness of our knowledge of the former condition of the 

 organic world, but takes what facts we have as fragments of 

 a vast whole, and deduces from them something of the nature 

 and proportions of that whole which we can never know in 

 detail. It is founded upon isolated groups of facts, recognises 

 their isolation, and endeavours to deduce from them the 

 nature of the intervening portions. 



Rudimentary Organs 



Another important series of facts, quite in accordance 

 with, and even necessary deductions from, the law now 

 developed, are those of rudimentary organs. That these 

 really do exist, and -in most cases have no special function in 

 the animal economy, is admitted by the first authorities in 

 comparative anatomy. The minute limbs hidden beneath the 

 skin in many of the snake-like lizards, the anal hooks of the 

 boa constrictor, the complete series of jointed finger -bones in 

 the paddle of the Manatus and whale, are a few of the most 

 familiar instances. In botany a similar class of facts has been long 

 recognised. Abortive stamens, rudimentary floral envelopes 

 and undeveloped carpels, are of the most frequent occurrence. 

 To every thoughtful naturalist the question must arise, What 

 are these for 1 What have they to do with the great laws of 

 creation? Do they not teach us something of the system 

 of Nature ? If each species has been created independently, 

 and without any necessary relations with pre-existing species, 

 what do these rudiments, these apparent imperfections mean ? 

 c 



