8 STUDIES IN LIFE AND SENSE. 



mammals, man also exhibits a community of broad type and plan, 

 which demonstrates that in the build of his body he is at one with 

 even fish and frog. There is no escape from this plain, healthy 

 recognition of " man's place in nature." So far, therefore, from our 

 being able to discover within the sphere of humanity any special 

 possessions which entitle man to claim a structural kingdom for him- 

 self, we see, on the contrary, that he simply shares a position in the 

 animal world to which every other " backboned" form has a legitimate 

 claim. His more special features are, in reality, the outcome and 

 elaboration of traits which lower life exhibits in germ form long 

 before the human domain is reached. So that, whilst man stands a 

 veritable " lord of the creation," he truly occupies this elevated niche 

 only because he represents in himself the concentrated and elaborated 

 development of the type and belongings of existences infinitely lower 

 than his own. 



Turning now to the investigation of more minute and specialised 

 points wherein the resemblances which exist between man and lower 

 forms may be more distinctly seen, we may first enter that region of 

 comparative anatomy which has for its aim the investigation of what 

 have been named " rudimentary organs." In former decades of 

 natural history study, biologists were not given to trouble themselves 

 concerning the existence or nature of such parts. In truth, the 

 existence of many rudimentary organs in animals and plants has only 

 been brought to light as a relatively recent discovery in biology. 

 The naturalists of old, with very special views of teleology and creation 

 before their eyes, were given to discuss in detail the uses and purposes 

 of the various organs and parts of living beings. Nowadays, we are 

 quite as much concerned with the study of the " purposelessness " of 

 certain parts, as with the evident functions of others. A philosophy 

 of by no means shallow character, but which, on the other hand, lies 

 at the root and foundation of our modern theory of nature, is bound 

 up with this study of parts which have become purposeless and useless. 

 It is the idea that they have become so, that in reality constitutes the 

 gist of the philosophy which explains their being ; since on all other 

 theories of their existence, the presence of useless and degenerated 

 organs in animals and plants constitutes an unexplained mystery of life. 



That humanity possesses within the compass of its frame a con- 

 siderable number of examples of useless parts, which, as G. H. Lewes 

 remarked, have a reference " to a former state of things," is readily 

 proved. If, for instance, we make a superficial examination of the 

 muscular surroundings of the human ear, we may discover certain 

 plain examples of the rudimentary organs, to which the modern 

 anatomist attaches a high importance as clues and guides to the past 

 history of the race that exhibits them. The power to move our ears 

 is, of course, non-existent in the vast majority of mankind. Now 



