1 64 CLUES AND SUGGESTIONS CHAP. 



frame they always insist that it must be 

 the vestige of an organ which was once 

 in full activity in some actual progenitor. 

 They never allow that it may possibly 

 represent a contemplated future. Accord- 

 ing to them it must, and can, only repre- 

 sent an accomplished and concluded past. 

 Why is this ? Of course it involves a 

 complete abandonment of the attempt to 

 give any account of the origin of any 

 organic structure. It implicitly assumes 

 that they were created suddenly, and in 

 a state so perfect as to be capable of 

 functional activity from the moment of 

 their first appearance. If not, then there 

 is no puzzle in rudimentary organs. 

 They are the normal and necessary 

 results of gradual evolution by gradual 

 variations. 



The assumption, therefore, that such 

 organs must always be the remnants 

 of structures formerly complete, is so 



