Rudiments. 53 



close resemblance to a cartilaginous fish, such as the sturgeon ( see fig. 

 55). Its mouth is on the underside of its head, its vertebrae are only 

 cartilage instead of bone, and its tail is undivided. This is substan- 

 tially the permanent condition of the sturgeon except that the tail of 

 the adult sturgeon is unequally divided having a long prong above to 

 the end of which the cartilaginous spine extends, and a short, fin-like 

 branch underneath. When the white fish is grown, its mouth comes to 

 the front end, its spinal column becomes ossified and the tail more 

 equally divided, as in the osseous fishes. This proves the sturgeon 

 type or cartilaginous type of fishes to be older than the osseous. 



In some of the carnivora there are rudimentary pouch or marsupial 

 bones, showing the relationship between these animals and the marsu- 

 pials. In the latter, these bones are useful to support and protect the 

 stomach and intestines against the pressure of the young -in the pouch 

 in which the young are carried by the mother. It is remarkable that 

 the males of kangaroos and other marsupials also have the marsupial 

 bones, without any pouch, however. 



Probably the marsupial bones are the remains of a pelvic or belly 

 bone belonging to the pelvic arch, and corresponding to the sternum or 

 breast bone of the pectoral arch. (See chapter on osseous system. ) 



The rudimentary tails of men and apes have already been mentioned. 

 Hoffman's sloth also has the same sort of a rudiment not showing itself 

 outside of the skin. (Enc}^clopedia B-821). 



In all birds the left ovary produces all the eggs, while the right one 

 is aborted and becomes a useless rudiment. 



According to Hseckel, it is proved by comparative anatomy and other 

 means, that all dragon-flies, grasshoppers, beetles, bees, bugs, flies, 

 butterflies, and other insects now living, -have originated from a com- 

 mon ancestry having two pairs of wings and three pairs of legs. But a 

 great many living insects are destitute of one or both pair of these 

 wings, or have them in an aborted and f unctionless condition. Para- 

 sitic insects, especially, have, in most cases, lost both pair of wings 

 evidently because they ceased to use them. 



The gill arches of the embryo are a necessary development in fishes, 

 &c. , but not in mammals. The gills in fish oxydize the blood, but they 

 do not in the mammal embryo. Obviously they cannot and don't need 

 to. Nature blindty makes these gill arches with their blood vessels and 

 the blood going through them as if to be oxydteed, and then in each 

 case, as if finding out by actual experiment that they will not answer 

 the purpose, they are torn down and new work substituted. " Does this 

 look much like intelligent design? 



The rapidity of these early transitions show first the great frequency 

 of their occurrence in the past, by which the ancient habits of develop- 



