338 THE RECAPITULATION THEORY 



compared to a lobster ; to do so would be mis- 

 leading. An animal should only be spoken of as 

 degenerate when the retrograde development is 

 well marked, and has affected not one or two 

 organs only, but the totality of its organisation. 

 c. It is impossible to draw a sharp line in such 

 cases, and to limit precisely the use of the term 

 degeneration. It must be borne in mind that no 

 animal is at the top of the tree in all respects, 

 ^an Himself is primitive as regards the number 

 of his^ toes, and degenerate in respect to his ear 

 muscles ; and between two animals even of the 

 same group it may be impossible to decide which 

 of the two is to be called the higher and which the 

 lower form. Thus to compare an oyster with a 

 mussel : the oyster is more primitive than the 

 mussel as regards the position of the ventricle of 

 the heart and its relations to the alimentary canal ; 

 but is more modified in having but a single adductor 

 muscle, and almost certainly degenerate in being 

 devoid of a foot. 



Care must also be taken to avoid speaking of an 

 animal as degenerate in regard to a particular organ 

 merely because that organ is less fully developed 

 than in allied animals. An organ is not degenerate 

 unless its present possessor has it in a less perfect 

 condition than its__ancestors had.c A~man is not 

 degenerate in the matter of the length of his neck 

 as compared jvith a giraffe, nor as compared with 

 an elephant irTrelpect of the size of his front teeth, 

 for neither elephant nor giraffe enters into the 

 pedigree of man! STman is however degenerate, 



