HOMOLOGY. S3 



useless and even dangerous a structure, for the 

 sole purpose of rendering his internal anatomy 

 more like that of a kangaroo ! Can anything be 

 more preposterous than such a suggestion ? But 

 if man has undergone a long course of Evolution 

 from previously existing forms, some of which 

 may have possessed, as an important part of 

 their structure, an organ which only exists in 

 man as a useless and dangerous rudiment, its 

 presence becomes at once intelligible, and might 

 even excite our wonder and gratitude to the 

 Creator, wljo has deigned to work upon a method 

 which permits us in some measure to compre- 

 hend the marvellous and harmonious series of 

 gradual changes by which all existing organisms 

 have arisen. This is no solitary case ; and 

 Darwin remarks, that " not one of the higher 

 animals can be named which does not bear some 

 part in a rudimentary condition ; and man forms 

 no exception to the rule.* 



Another class of homologies is presented by 

 the organs of the senses in different animals. 

 The ears and eyes of the Cephalopoda are per- 

 fectly homologous with those of the Verte- 



Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 17." 



G 2 



