THE RECAPITULATION THEORY 179 
It was sought to break the force of this very serious objection to 
the theory of special creation by saying that apparently useless organs 
may nevertheless have functions which are still unknown to us and 
may be revealed by future discovery. In certain cases, like that of the 
thyroid gland in the neck, this contention has been justified, but there 
are many others to which it does not apply. ' For example, in the great 
and varied whale-tribe (order Cetacea) which includes the right; or’ 
whalebone, whales, the sperm-whales, the porpoises, dolphins, etc., 
the forelimbs have been converted into swimming paddles, but the 
hind limbs appear to have vanished completely, leaving no externally 
-visible trace. Internally, however, recognizable remnants of the hind 
limb-bones may be found in various stages of reduction, which differ 
in the different members of the order. In the Greenland Right Whale 
the hip-bone, thigh-bone and shin-bone are indicated; in the Finwhale 
only the hip-bones and a minute rudiment of the thigh-bone are to be 
found; in the toothed whales only an almost unrecognizable remnant 
of the hip-bone is left and'in one of the dolphins even that has dis- 
appeared. Similarly, the snakes have lost their limbs completely,'so 
far as external appearance is concerned, and in most members of the’ 
group no trace of limbs is to be found on dissection, but in certain 
snakes the rudiments of limbs are to be detected. Leaving aside all: 
preconceptions, which is the more probable explanation of such 
phenomena, the theory of special creation or the theory of ‘evolution ? 
Even if it were admitted that all rudimentary organs and struc- 
tures found in the adult have a certain unknown use and value, ‘no one ' 
could maintain this with regard to the countless:instances of structures 
which are developed in the embryo, but disappear entirely before 
birth. Itis possible to mention but a very few of such instances out. 
of the great number that have already been observed and recorded, 
but these few will suffice to illustrate the principle involved. 
“Examples of this may be cited from the most widely different 
groups: in the embryo of insects, especially of beetles, pairs of legs 
are formed within the egg; not only on the head and thorax, but also 
on the abdomen, but while those on the head are transformed into 
mouth-parts, those on the thorax are farther developed in their joint- 
ing and musculature to be locomotive legs, those on the abdomen are 
again resorbed. In many fresh-water worms, the eggs of which are 
laid in a cocoon, from which they are hatched as a finished, minute, 
crawling worm, larval organs are nevertheless formed, which recall 
those of the Trochophore, the larva of the original worms, which swims 
