ANIMAL PEDIGREES 209 



existing forms is due to repetition of ancestral 

 characters. 



Rudimentary organs are extremely common, 

 especially among the higher groups of animals, and 

 their presence and significance are now well under- 

 stood. Man himself affords numerous and excellent 

 examples, not merely in his bodily structure, but by 

 his speech, dress, and customs. For the silent 

 letter b in the word " doubt," the g in " reign," or 

 the w of " answer," or the buttons on his elastic- 

 side boots are as true examples of rudiments, 

 unintelligible but for their past history, as are the 

 ear muscles he possesses but cannot use ; or the 

 gill-clefts, which are functional in fishes and tad- 

 poles, and are present, though useless, in the em- 

 bryos of all higher vertebrates ; which in their early 

 stages the hare and the tortoise alike possess, and 

 which are shared with them by cats and by kings. 



The fossil remains of animals and of plants yield 

 results of the greatest importance when studied in 

 the light of the Recapitulation Theory. I have 

 thought it well to ask special attention to these, 

 even at the risk of repeating what has been said 

 elsewhere and by others, for it seems to me that 

 zoologists are too apt nowadays to neglect palaeon- 

 tology, while palaeontologists have a tendency to 

 regard embryology as something beyond their own 

 ken, and concerning them but little. Moreover 

 there are certain points arising from a study of 

 fossils which, I venture to think, may possibly 

 commend themselves to some of our members as 

 suitable subjects for practical investigation. 



