RUDIMENTARY ORGANS. 437 



head, in the armpits, and on some other parts of the body. The 

 short hairs on the greater part of the surface of our bodies are 

 entirely useless, are without any physiological significance ; 

 they are the last scanty remains of the much more fully 

 developed haiiy covering of our Ape ancestors (p. 208). The 

 sense-organs exhibit a series of the most remarkable rudimen- 

 tary parts. As we have seen, the whole external shell of the 

 ear, with its cartilages, muscles, and membranes, is, in Man, 

 a useless appendage, destitute of the physiological importance 

 that was formerly, erroneously, attributed to it. It is the 

 atrophied remnant of the pointed, freely-moving, and much 

 more highly developed mammalian ear, the muscles of which 

 we retain, although we can no longer use them (p. 271). 

 Again, we found, at the inner corner of the human eye, the 

 remarkable little crescent-shaped fold, which is of no use to 

 us, and is of interest only as being the last vestige of the 

 nictitating membrane ; of that third inner eyelid which is 

 still of great physiological importance in Sharks and many 

 Amnion Animals (p. 259). Numerous and interesting 

 dysteleological proofs are also afforded by the apparatus of 

 motion, both by the bony and the muscular systems. I 

 will only cite the free, projecting tail of the human embryo, 

 and the rudimentary caudal vertebrae developed in the 

 latter, together with the pertinent muscles; this whole 

 organ is entirely useless to Man, but is of great interest as 

 the atrophied remnant of the long tail of our earlier Ape 

 ancestors, which was composed of numerous vertebrae and 

 muscles (p. 283). From these same ancestors we have also 

 inherited various bone-processes and muscles, which were of 

 great use to them in their climbing life among the trees, but 

 with us have fallen out of use. At various points under the 



