ch. ix.] SPECIAL-CREATION, OR DERIVATION 1 455 



Lastly the foetus of civilized man, at seven months, is 

 entirely human in appearance, but still has not thoroughly 

 acquired the physical attributes which distinguish the 

 civilized man from the Australian or the negro. 



On the evolution-theory these phenomena are explicable 

 as due to the integration or summing-up of adaptive pro- 

 cesses, by which modifications slowly acquired through gene- 

 rations of ancestral organisms are more and more rapidly 

 repeated in the embryos. Hence, as Prof. Haeckel has 

 elaborately proved, we must expect to find the phenomena of 

 embryology in complete harmony with the facts of the 

 geological succession of organisms. Observation shows that 

 the harmony is complete ; and again, unless we are to 

 suppose that the phenomena of nature have been maliciously 

 arranged with the express purpose of cheating us, we have 

 no choice but to accept that harmony as proof of the truth 

 of the evolution-theory. 



Kindred evidence is furnished by the well-known fact that 

 many animals, during their foetal life, acquire organs like 

 those possessed by adults of allied species, but which, having 

 no functions to discharge, are after awhile absorbed or 

 dwindle into mere rudiments. The mammalian embryo at 

 first circulates its blood through a vascular system like the 

 gills of fishes ; afterwards this is replaced by a vascular mem- 

 brane called the allantois, like the membrane which replaces 

 gills in the development of birds and reptiles. Neither of 

 these structures is useful to the embryo for the purpose of 

 aerating its blood, and there is no possible explanation of 

 their appearance in untold millions of mammals, unless we 

 admit that they are due to inheritance from the amphibious 

 ancestors of the mammalian class. Of like meaning are 

 such facts as the presence of useless teeth in the jaws of 

 foetal whales, and in the beaks of certain embryonic birds ; 

 the rudiments of a pelvis and hind-limbs in many snakes 

 the wings, firmly fastened under their wing-cases, in insect 



