274 



THEOEIES AS TO THE NATUEE OF SPECIES. [Ch. XXXV. 



never lost an opportunity, wlien lie spoke of the rudimentary 

 organs found in so many animals, of pointing out their 

 bearing on the theory of transmutation. According to him 

 they were clearly the relics of parts which had been service- 

 able in some remote ancestor and had been reduced in size by 

 disuse, and he rejected the idea as puerile that useless organs 

 had been created for the sake of uniformity of plan. 



I may here remark that in my brief abstract of Lamarck's 

 theory drawn up by me originally in 1832, and which for 

 reasons explained in the last chapter (p. 246, note) I have 

 now reprinted without alteration or addition, I omitted, 

 when referring to what he had said on the impoverishment 

 and final disappearance of organs by disuse, to cite many 

 examples which he gives in the ^Philosophic Zoologique' in 

 illustration of this principle. Among other facts the abortive 

 teeth concealed in the jaws of some mammalia are mentioned, 

 such teeth not being required because their food is swallowed 

 without mastication. The discovery also by G. St. Hilaire 

 of teeth in the foetus of a whale is alluded to, and the small 

 size of the eyes in the mole which makes scarcely any use of 

 its organs of vision. Allusion is also made to the aquatic 

 reptile called Proteus anguinuSy inhabiting the waters of dark 

 subterranean caverns, 

 rudiments of eyes.^ 



The question of species as treated in the ^ Vestiges of Crea- 

 tion.^ — But, speaking generally, it may be said that all the 

 most influential teachers of geology, paleontology, zoology, 

 and botany continued till near the middle of this century 

 either to assume the independent creation and immutability 

 of species, or carefully to avoid expressing any opinion on this 

 important subject. In England the calm was first broken by 

 the appearance in 1844 of a work entitled ^The Vestiges of 

 Creation,' in which the anonymous author had gathered 

 together and presented to the public, with great clearness and 

 skill, the new facts brought to light in geology and the kin- 

 dred sciences since the time of Lamarck in favour of the 

 transmutation of species and their progressive development 



which retains only the vestiges or 



' 



/ 



I 



* Phil. Zool. torn, i, p. 2-10, where other examples are also given. 



