SPECIAL CREATION OR DERIVATION? 



of the derivation-theory. As already hinted, 

 these phenomena are in general explicable by 

 the Doctrine of Evolution. But to the special 

 creation hypothesis they are unmanageable 

 stumbling-blocks. Even without any profound 

 knowledge of embryology, one may readily see 

 that if the tadpoles of the black salamander 

 were anciently born as tadpoles, and swam in 

 the water, they may still retain their exquisite 

 gills while nourished to a later stage of devel- 

 opment in the maternal organism. But on the 

 opposite theory the existence of these gills is 

 meaningless. 



III. The equally significant facts of mor- 

 phology may be more concisely presented. 

 Why, unless through common inheritance, 

 should all the vertebrata be constructed on the 

 same type ? Structurally considered, man, ele- 

 phant, mouse, ostrich, humming-bird, tortoise, 

 snake, frog, crocodile, halibut, herring, and 

 shark are but different modifications of one 

 common form. It is a familiar fact that the 

 arms of men and apes, the fore-legs of quad- 

 rupeds, the paddles of cetacea, the wings of 

 birds, and the breast-fins of fishes are structur- 

 ally identical, being developed from the same 

 embryonal rudiments. Externally there is but 

 little resemblance between the human hand and 

 the hoof of a horse ; yet anatomy shows that 

 the horse's hoof is made up of claws or fingers 

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