232 THE PATH OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



CHAPTER II 



CAN RUDIMENTARY INSTITUTIONS OR ORGANS RESUME 

 THEIR PRIMITIVE FUNCTIONS ? 



THERE is no break of continuity between a rudi- 

 mentary organ and the complete ancestral organ : 

 the rudimentary organ is the ancestral organ trans- 

 mitted by inheritance. It is the same organ not 

 only because it has the same form, but because it is 

 actually a part of it. For the reduced organ to 

 return to its ancestral condition and resume its 

 ancestral function, it must retrace the series of 

 steps in degeneration along which it has passed. 



So also in sociology there are many instances of 

 institutions which are rudimentary, but which retain 

 their original form because of uninterrupted imitative 

 transmission. In their case also resumption of the 

 primitive functional activity would imply a retracing 

 of the degenerate steps. 



This necessity of retracing shows at once that 

 after a certain amount of degeneration resumption 

 becomes impossible. We shall find in the few cases 

 we are able to adduce, that when organs retrace 

 their steps and resume their ancestral functions, 

 degeneration had not gone very far in them. 



SECTION I. 

 Rudimentary organs. 



I. Animals. Among animals it is very unusual 

 for a rudimentary organ to become active again. 



