The Discovery of Natural Selection 



in the animal economy, is admitted by the first authorities 

 in comparative anatomy. The minute limbs hidden beneath 

 the skin in many of the snake-like lizards, the anal hooks 

 of the boa constrictor, the complete series of jointed finger- 

 bones in the paddle of the manatee and the whale, are a few 

 of the most familiar instances. In botany a similar class 

 of facts has been long recognised. Abortive stamens, rudi- 

 mentary floral envelope and undeveloped carpels are of the 

 most frequent occurrence. To every thoughtful naturalist 

 the question must arise. What are these for ? What have 

 they to do with the great laws of creation ? Do they not 

 teach us something of the system of nature ? If each 

 species has been created independently, and without any 

 necessary relation with pre-existing species, what do these 

 rudiments, these apparent imperfections, mean ? There 

 must be a cause for them; they must be the necessary 

 result of some great natural law. Now, if . . . the great 

 law which has regulated the peopling of the earth with 

 animal and vegetable life is, that every change shall be 

 gradual; that no new creature shall be formed widely 

 different from anything before existing; that in this, as 

 in everything else in nature, there shall be gradation and 

 harmony — then these rudimentary organs are necessary and 

 are an essential part of the system of nature. Ere the higher 

 vertebrates were formed, for instance, many steps were re- 

 quired, and many organs had to undergo modifications from 

 the rudimental condition in which only they had as yet 

 existed. . . . Many more of these modifications should we 

 behold, and more complete series of them, had we a view 

 of all the forms which have ceased to live. The great gaps 

 that exist . . . would be softened down by intermediate 

 groups, and the whole organic world would be seen to be 

 an unbroken and harmonious system. 



The article, in which we can see a great generalisation 

 struggling to be born, ends thus : 



It has now been shown, though most briefly and im- 

 perfectly, how the law that " every species has come into 



iOl 



