I PATHOLOGICAL ARGUMENT 37 



there is no going against the facts of pathology which 

 come to furnish an unexpected support to the theory 

 of evolution. Other pathological, or, at least, abnor- 

 mal, facts point in the same direction. Some years 

 ago Dr. L. Testut, of Bordeaux, wrote l a large work 

 on muscular anomalies in man. It is well known 

 that there are frequent variations in the muscular 

 system, muscles being sometimes differently attached, 

 sometimes absent, while in many cases unusual 

 muscles appear in the human organism. Have the 

 persons who offer these abnormal conditions been 

 specially created with these peculiarities ? There is 

 no reason for supposing that they originated by a 

 different method from that with which we are all 

 acquainted, and then what can the creationists say to 

 explain these facts ? The evolutionist appeals to 

 descent, and does not much wonder at the occasional 

 presence, in man, of muscles which exist permanently 

 and constantly in other mammals. As Dr. Testut 

 says, " When we consider the facts separately [the 

 facts of muscular variation], we find, in short, that 

 nearly all the muscular anomalies of man are normal 

 dispositions in organisms which are inferior to him in 

 the zoological scale." This means that no condition 



1 Les Anomalies wuscntaires c/icz F Homme expliquecs par T Anatomic 

 comparte, by L. Testut, Professor in the Medical School of Bordeaux. 

 8vo, 850 pages, 1884. Paris : G. Masson. 



