1 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
caused the earlier naturalists greater difficulty than the 
explanation of the so-called “rudimentary organs,’—those 
parts in animal and vegetable bodies which really have no 
function, which have no physiological importance, and yet 
exist in form. These parts deserve the most careful atten- 
tion, although most unscientific men know little or nothing 
about them. Almost every organism, almost every animal 
and plant possesses, besides the obviously useful arrange- 
ments of its organization, other arrangements the purpose 
of which it is utterly impossible to make out. 
Examples of this are found everywhere. In the embryos 
of many ruminating animals—among others, in our common 
cattle—fore-teeth, or incisors, are placed in the mid-bone of 
the upper jaw, which never fully develop, and therefore 
serve no purpose. The embryos of many whales—which 
afterwards possess the well-known whalebone instead of 
teeth, yet have before they are born, and while they take no 
nourishment, teeth in their jaws, which set of teeth never 
“comes into use. Moreover, most of the higher animals pos- 
sess muscles which are never employed; even man has such 
rudimentary muscles. Most of us are incapable of moving 
our ears as we wish, although the muscles for this move- 
ment exist, and although individual persons who have 
taken the trouble to exercise these muscles do succeed in 
moving their ears. It is still possible, by special exercise, 
by the persevering influence of the will upon the nervous 
system, to reanimate the almost extinct activity in the 
existing but imperfect organs, which are on the road to 
complete, disappearance. On the other hand, we can no 
longer do this with another set of small rudimentary 
muscles, which still exist in the cartilage of the outer ear, 
