"hap. I. Rudiments. 1 1 



like a true tail, "extending considerably beyond the rudi- 

 "mentary 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 resemblances between man and 

 the lower animals may be observed. Bischoff 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 fereat 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 per- 

 " manent 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." 



liudimenU. — This subject, though not intrinsically more 

 important than the two last, will for several reasons be treated 

 here more fully.''" Kot 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. Eudimentary organs must 

 be distinguished from those that are nascent; though in some 

 cases the distinction is not easy. The former are either abso- 

 lutely useless, such as the mammsB 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 suppose that they were developed under the 



'° Pi'of. Wyman in ' Proc. of ^^ I had written a rough cop; ol 



American Acad, of Sciences,' fol. iv. this chapter before reading a valu- 



1860, p. 17. able paper, "Caratteri rudimentali 



" Owen, ' Anatomy of Verte- in ordine all' origins del nomo " 



brates,' vol. i. p. 533. (' Annuario della Soc. d. Nat.,' Mo- 



»» ' Die Grosshirnwinduu^en des dena, 1867, p. 81), by G. Canestrini, 



Kenschen,' 1868, s. 95. to which paper I am considerably 



" '^natomy of Vertebrates,' vol. indebted. Hackel has given admir- 



j, p. 553. able discussions on this whole sub- 



» ' Proc. Soc. Nat. Hist.' Boston, ject, under the title of Dysteleology, 



1863, vol. ix. p. 183. in his ' Generelle Morphologie ' and 



" ' Man's Place in Nature,' p. 65. ' Schopfungsgeschichta.' 



