190 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



most of geological time, is to my mind, totally incredi- 

 ble; and for the reason already stated, namely, that 

 if disuse can cause an organ that is useful to decrease 

 and become entirely useless, then it ought for the 

 same reason to totally disappear. 



We would be obliged to look for Mr. Darwin's her- 

 maphrodite progenitor of the vertebrates somewhere 

 in the Silurian age, and that such a progenitor, with- 

 out a womb, should be the cause of existing foetal 

 male mammals having a rudimentary womb is not at 

 all credible. L have no respect for such exorbitant 

 claims made by evolution and embryology. 



Mr. Darwin says that he had formerly * " attributed 

 the not very rare cases of supernumerary mammae in 

 women to reversion," but owing to the fact that 

 mammae erraticae occur in various situations, even on 

 the back, he thinks that the force of his argument in 

 favor of reversion is quite destroyed. He also admits 

 that " it is extremely doubtful whether supernumer- 

 ary digits can thus be accounted for." 



The spurs of birds present further difficulties to 

 the theory of evolution. Most birds have no spurs. 

 When they possess them, as a rule the males alone 

 have them well-developed, while they are rudimentary 

 in the females. In some cases, however, both sexes 

 possess them in a well-developed form. 



The general absence of even rudimentary spurs 

 among birds shows, either that most birds have lost 

 them entirely, or that, not having been common to 

 birds, they have been evolved in the few that possess 

 them. The latter seems more probable, if they were 

 evolved; but how could a spur be evolved in either 

 sex? As a rudiment, it would for many generations 

 be entirely useless for any purpose, and consequently 

 * Descent, Vol. 1, p. 120. 



