RUDIMENTS. H 



"considerably beyond the rudimentary legs."" In the embryos of 

 all air-breathing vertebrates, certain glands, called the corpora 

 Wolffiana, correspond with, and act like the kidneys of mature 

 fishes." Even at a later embryonic period, some striking resem- 

 blances between man and the lower animals may be observed. 

 Blschoff says that the convolutions of the brain in a human foetus 

 at the end of the seventh month reach about the same stage of 

 development as in a baboon when adult." The great toe, as 

 Prof. Owen remarks," "which forms the fulcrum when standing 

 "or walking, is perhaps the most characteristic peculiarity in the 

 "human structure;" but in an embryo, about an inch in length. 

 Prof. Wyman''" found "that the great toe was shorter than the 

 "others; and, instead of being parallel to them, projected at an 

 "angle from the side of the foot, thus corresponding with the 

 "permanent condition of this part in the quadrumana." I will 

 conclude with a quotation from Huxley,^' who after asking, does 

 man originate in a different way from a dog, bird, frog or fish? 

 says, "the reply is not doubtful for a moment; without question, 

 "the mode of origin, and the early stages of the development of 

 "man, are identical with those of the animals immediately below 

 "him in the scale: without a doubt in these respects, he is far 

 "nearer to apes than the apes are to the dog." 



Rudiments. — This subject, though not intrinsically more im- 

 portant than the two last, will for several reasons be treated here 

 more fully. ^^ Not one of the higher animals can be named which 

 does not bear some part in a rudimentary condition; and man 

 forms no exception -to the rule. Rudimentary organs must be dis- 

 tinguished from those that are nascent; though in some cases the 

 distinction is not easy. The former are either absolutely useless, 

 such as the mammas of male quadrupeds, or the incisor teeth of 

 ruminants which never cut through the gums; or they are of such 

 slight service to their present possessors, that we can hardly sup- 

 pose that they were developed under the conditions which now ex- 

 's Prof. Wyman in 'Proc. of American Acad, of Sciences,' vol. Iv. 

 1860, p. 17. 

 " Owen, 'Anatomy of Vertebrates,' vol. i. p. 533. 

 1* 'Die Grosshirnwindungen des Menschen,' 1868, b. 95. 

 " 'Anatomy of Vertebrates,' vol. ii. p. 653. 

 ™ 'Proc. Soc. Nat. Hist.' Boston, 1863, vol. ix. p. 185. 

 -^ 'Man's Place in Nature,' p. 65. 



22 I had written a rough copy of this chapter before reading a valu- 

 able paper, "Caratteri rudimentali in ordine all' origin© del uomo" 

 ('Annuario della Soc. d. Nat,,' Modena, 1867, p. 81), by G. Canestrini, 

 to which paper I am considerably indebted. Hackel has given ad- 

 mirable discussions on this whole subject, under the title of Dysteleo- 

 logy, in his 'Generelle Morphologie' and 'Schopfungsgeschichte.' 



