in RUDIMENTS INTERPRETED 175 



followed to the last; that all the 

 marvellous implications and infoldings 

 which lay hid in the original germs have 

 kept on unfolding themselves till Man 

 appeared. In this case, the arrested 

 structures would naturally exhibit traces 

 of the processes which had been going 

 on for millions of years, although they 

 were now to be pursued no farther. 

 Thus the mere existence of a rudiment- 

 ary organ, apart from other evidence, 

 would not of necessity imply that the 

 creature in which it appears is the off- 

 spring of other creatures which had that 

 same organ in perfection. The alter- 

 native interpretation is easy, natural, and 

 may well be true that such a rudiment 

 neither has ever been, nor is yet ever to 

 be, developed into functional activity. 

 It may be where it is simply because it 

 indicates an original direction of growth, 

 or of development, which was made part 



