THE FORE-LIMB: SUMMARY 45 



regarded, not as a wonderful and specially designed 

 structure, but as the perfected products of accumulated 

 ages of evolution the last thing in animal development 

 and specialization. It is no overstatement of the case 

 to say that Man was regarded by many as the last thing 

 made, the culmination of evolution, and for some op- 

 ponents of the new teaching and for some of its sup- 

 porters he was the most modern animal. The orthodox 

 chronology was accepted, the " highest " form was the 

 last form made, but instead of being the latest creation, 

 he was the latest evolution. Huxley soon exposed the 

 folly of this notion when it was definitely brought forward 

 by an opponent. But though the statement of the idea 

 as expressed by Mr. Gladstone may have been very crude, 

 and its demolition easy by such powers of argument as 

 were Huxley's, still, in more subtle guise the same idea 

 becomes presented under many forms even to-day, and 

 this not by any means necessarily from opponents of 

 evolution ; in such forms its refutation is not always easy. 

 In even the most rigid and strictly scientific investigations 

 in comparative anatomy this tendency is at times mani- 

 fested. The human type of joint, or nerve, or muscle, or 

 what not is so often assumed to be the last perfected 

 the culminating type. There is a vague idea, which 

 insinuates itself in many ways, that the human type of 

 structure must be derived from, and have passed through, 

 stages seen in a series of " lower " animals. A foolish 

 argument may be permitted in dealing with a folly. 

 Were a horse capable of writing works on comparative 

 anatomy, he would probably, and with far more justice, 

 regard his race as being the last effort in evolutionary 

 chronology, and he would, and again with far more 

 justice, derive his highly specialized limbs from those of 

 some such primitive form as Man. 



A Bridg water Treatise upon " The Construction of the 

 Hoof of the Horse," followed by a " Descent of the 

 Horse " by a member of the same species, would be a 



