THE ARGUMENT FROM EMBRYOLOGY 97 



his teeth, for example — that show degeneration quite 

 as clearly as do these ear-muscles ; while most 

 excellent examples are furnished by his laws, habits, 

 clothing, and speech. In such a word as "reign," 

 the letter "g" is mute and rudimentary ; no attempt 

 is made to sound it when pronouncing the word, and 

 its presence can only be explained in accordance 

 with the laws of rudimentary organs generally. 

 Turn to the past history of the word, refer to its 

 ancestors, and you find in the Latin " regnum " a 

 word in which the " g " has full value, and from 

 which we know that our own " reign " has been 

 derived. The "b" in "doubt," the "n" in "solemn " 

 are other examples; while in the "If" of "half- 

 penny " we have a case in which degeneration is in 

 the act of taking place at the present time. 



Disturbing Causes hindering Recapitulation. 



We must now turn to another side of the question. 

 Although it is undoubtedly true that development is 

 to be regarded as a recapitulation of ancestral phases 

 and that the embryonic history of an animal presents 

 to us a record of the race history ; yet it is also an 

 undoubted fact, that the record so obtained is neither 

 complete nor straightforward. 



It is indeed a history, but a history of which 

 entire chapters are lost, while in those that remain 

 many pages are misplaced and others are so blurred 

 as to be illegible ; words, sentences, or entire 

 paragraphs are omitted, and, worse still, alterations 

 or spurious additions have been freely introduced 



