PAET III 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 



FROM all the facts that we have brought together, 

 the general conclusion becomes plain that retrogres- 

 sion, notwithstanding the etymology of the word, 

 does not imply a return to the ancestral condition. 



Eudimentary organs and institutions resemble the 

 primitive states of these, in so far as they no longer 

 possess certain parts which the primitive stages did 

 not yet possess. None the less, profound differences 

 exist between the primitive and the reduced forms. 

 In the primitive condition the institution or organ 

 is capable of varying in the direction of new uses ; 

 in the reduced form, after a certain degree of 

 atrophy, there is no longer the possibility of 

 redevelopment to resume old or to acquire new 

 functions. These observations apply equally to 

 biology and to sociology. 



Magnan and Legrain, in their work on de- 

 generate persons, came to similar conclusions. 

 They came to regard degenerate persons as 

 abnormal, chiefly because they were devoid of 

 the power to reacquire the normal condition and 

 quite unlike their primitive ancestors, who, although 



