ADAPTATIONS 



313 



Each of these vestigial organs tells a story of some past 

 adaptation to conditions, one that is no longer needed in 

 the life of the species. They have the same place in the 

 study of animals that silent letters have in the study of 

 words. For example, in our word knight the Tc and gh are 

 no longer sounded ; but our ancestors used them both, as 

 the Germans do to-day in their cognate word Kneclit. So 

 with the French word temps, which means time, in which 

 both p and s are silent. The Eomans, from whom the 

 French took this word, needed all its letters, for they spelled 

 and pronounced it tempus. In general, every silent letter 

 in every word was once sounded. In like manner, every 

 vestigial structure was once in use and helpful or necessary 

 to the life of the animal which possessed it. 



Horns of two male elk interlocked while fighting. 

 ^Permission of G. O. SHIELDS, publisher of Recreation.) 



