ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 99 



Under the second, or anthropocentric group proper, the fol- 

 lowing facts were co-ordinated : 



Three cases, under the general head of "rudimentary organs," 

 as they are called, which, while they perform no known functions, 

 are at the same time the seats of dangerous diseases, viz. : 



i. The tonsils, as the seat of tonsilitis. 



2. The thyroid gland, the seat of the disease called goitre, or 

 bronchocele. 



3. The vermiform appendage of the intestines, in which two 

 dangerous forms of disease are located. 



Each of these has been traced back to a form in the lower ani- 

 mals, in which it was an active organ, which not only accounts for 

 the existing vestige on true scientific grounds, but at the same time 

 argues the descent of man from them. Yet this fails to relieve the 

 optimist from the onus of proving a teleological advantage from 

 them as they now exist. 



4. Allied to these cases, but of less general renown, is that of the 

 exposed condition of the lower extremity of the spinal cord, which, 

 under certain circumstances, becomes the seat of a fatal malady 

 known as rachidian meningitis. This condition, which is peculiar 

 to man, is explained morphologically as a result of the assumption 

 by man of the erect posture, in separating the sacral vertebras and 

 exposing the spinal cord. 



The remaining cases cited under this head were taken from 

 widely different fields : 



5. That the ability to predict the weather is at once the most 

 practically important and the most limited of scientific achieve- 

 ments. 



6. That, as Laplace has shown, the elements of the solar system, 

 from the human point of view, fall far short of the optimum. 



7. That if, as many astronomers suppose, the moons of the larger 

 planets are inhabited and derive their light and heat chiefly from 

 their primaries, it is an ill-devised arrangement that in all cases 

 they should always present one and the same side to them, leaving 

 the other hemisphere in perpetual darkness. 



