82 EVOLUTION AND NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



their possessors, and which appear at first sight 

 to have been given to them for no other purpose 

 than to complete their homological resemblance 

 to some other animal. 



It is strange that the Duke of Argyll should 

 write of man,* "'In his frame there is no aborted 

 member. Every part is put to its highest use ; " 

 for, apart from Embryology, which we will con- 

 sider in the next chapter, there are in man more 

 than one of the useless and even dangerous 

 structures to which we have just alluded. For 

 example, man possesses a structure known as 

 " the vermiform appendage of the caecum," 

 which varies considerably in development, and 

 is sometimes entirely absent. It is perfectly 

 useless in man, but represents an important 

 organ in birds and marsupials. Should any 

 hard substance, such as an apple-pip, happen to 

 lodge in it, it has been known to cause inflam- 

 mation and death ; while the appendage is also 

 liable to cause fatal obstruction in some of the 

 other intestines. Granted that such accidents 

 are very rare, is it conceivable that if man had 

 been independently created, an all-wise Creator 

 would have provided him with so absolutely 



* " Reign of Law," chapter iv. 



