298 THE RECAPITULATION THEORY 



stood^ Man himself affords numerous and excellent 

 examples. _not merely in his bodily structure, but 

 byjiis speech, dress, and customs. For the silent 

 letter b in the word doubt, 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 



JjJULt cannot use, or the gill-clefts, which are func- 

 tional in fishes and tadpoles, and are present 

 though useless in the embryos of all higher verte- 



~brates, which in their early stages the hare and 

 the tortoise alike possess, and which are shared 



"with them by cats and by kings. 



Another consideration of the greatest importance 

 arises from the study of the fossil remains of the 

 animals that formerly inhabited the earth. . It was 

 the elder Agassiz who first directed attention to 

 the remarkable agreement between THiTembrvomc 

 growth of animals and their palaeontological history. 

 He pointed out the resemblance between certain 

 stages in the growth of young fish and their fossil 

 representatives, and attempted to establish, with 

 regard to fish, a correspondence between their 

 palaeontological sequence and the successive stages 

 of embryonic development. He then extended his 

 observations to other groups, and stated his conclu- 

 sions in these words : *?_" It may therefore be con- 

 sidered as a general fact, very likely to be more 

 fully illustrated as_investigations cover a wider 

 ground, that the phases (^development of all living 

 animals correspond to the order of succession 

 * L. Agassiz, " Essay on Classification," 1859, p. 115. 



