50 A NEW THEORY OF EVOLUTION. 



ments of hind -limbs found inside the 

 body of the Greenland whale. 



According to this explanation fragmentary 

 organs are parts of organs once perfect in 

 an antecessor, and not the rudiments of 

 organs that become perfect in a successor. 



This explanation of the origin of frag- 

 mentary organs also explains why stages 

 of evolution that, according to Darwinism, 

 should be continuous in the embryo, do 

 not appear in the embryonic development 

 of some animals ; for example, why the 

 embryo of some snakes shows the gill-clefts 

 of a fish, but no trace of the fore-limbs of 

 an antecessor less remote. 



Sometimes the differentiation, towards a 

 higher or a lower specialisation, between an 

 antecessor and an immediate successor, is so 

 great that some organs of the immediate 

 antecessor are altogether wanting in the 

 successor. In such cases the differentiation 

 in the new Specific life - force takes effect 

 before the absent organs would begin to 

 be formed in the embryo of the successor, 

 and therefore the phases of the successor's 

 embryo show no trace of them. 



