RUDIMENTARY ORGANS. 491 



Our attention might here be directed to that interesting class of phe- 

 nomena known to comparative anatomists under the title of Rudimentary 

 rudimentary organsthat is to say, organs which exist in an thfh^inter- 

 apparently undeveloped and useless condition, such, for in- pretation. 

 stance, as the mammas of the male mammalian, or the subcutaneous feet 

 of certain snakes for these are facts intimately connected with the sub- 

 ject before us. It looks as if Nature stopped short in her attempt at 

 reaching perfection, but it preves to us the constancy of the plans on 

 which she works. In the case of the whale, which, though apparently 

 belonging to the fishes, is a warm-blooded mammal and suckles its young, 

 the general type of its class is observed even down to minute particulars ; 

 it is the attribute of those belonging to it that they shall have seven cer- 

 vical vertebras, and this is equally the case with the camelopard, with 

 its long, graceful neck, and the* mole, which seems to have no neck at 

 all. In the whale, which conforms to that general rule, the teeth are, 

 moreover, found in the jaw, in the earlier period of life, uncut, precisely 

 as we find them at birth in the human infant. In this last instance we 

 think we see a wise provision and foresight of nature, which does not 

 give to man these masticating organs before the time they are wanted ; 

 but what are we to make of the former case ? Man is not always a true 

 interpreter of the works of God. Shut up, as they are, in the interior of 

 the bony mass of the jaw, never to be developed and never to be used, 

 does not that look to a careless observer something like a work of super- 

 erogation ? Or, in the case of such snakes as the anguis, typhlops, and 

 amphisbasna, why is it that Nature has placed under the skin the bony 

 representatives of the extremities : the mode of progression of those an- 

 imals is by the use of the ribs, and organs such as feet are never wanted. 



We may also turn to the other department of physiology, the vegeta-^ 

 ble world, and what do we there see ? Rudimentary organs and excess 

 of development are .every where presented. An attentive examination 

 of any flower proves that we may with truth regard it as a transformed 

 branch, the law of development being such that that which might have 

 passed forward to the condition of a branch has turned to the condition 

 of a flower ; or, in still minuter particulars, we witness the same prin- 

 ciple : that which might have evolved into a leaf turns indifferently, as 

 circumstances may direct, into a sepal, a petal, or a stamen. 



But is it possible that there is all this confusion and want of precision 

 in the works , of Nature ? Not so. If we consider rightly, Appearance of 

 we shall come to the conclusion that Nature never works rudimentary 



, , organs the con- 



COntingently, nor resorts to a sudden contnvance to meet an sequence of 



exigency. All her operations are carried forward under far- law - 

 reaching and universal laws. These rudimentary and perhaps useless 

 organs come into existence through a general plan, of which they are 



