96 Permanence and Evolution. 



number of apparently useless organs have uses 

 unknown to us, or are correlated with other 

 organs which are useful ; it is, then, impossible 

 to prove, and even rash to presume, that the 

 wings of the apteryx answer no purpose. If, on 

 the other hand, we agree with those evolutionists 

 who consider the conditions of life or unknown 

 agencies as the main factors in development, 

 then there is no reason why the same causes 

 should not account for imperfect as well as for 

 perfect structures. If these aborted structures 

 were the only ones in which we could see no 

 use, then the explanation would have some locus 

 standi. 



Also, it seems to me that the evolutionist 

 argument from embryogeny is more poetical 

 than scientific. I do not see why the life of the 

 individual should in that way be supposed to 

 reflect the life of the race. We see a vast num- 

 ber of animal forms, many of which are very 

 like each other, and their distinctions less pro- 



