288 Troceedings of the Royal Society 
or rendered probable, we have a sound scientific basis for doubting 
the application of the theory precisely in proportion to the unlike- 
ness of the animals to which it is applied. And this is the ground 
of reasoning, besides the ground of feeling, on which we revolt 
from the doctrine as applied to Man. We do so because we are 
conscious of an amount and of a kind of difference between our- 
selves and the lower animals, which is, in sober truth, immeasur- 
able, in spite of the close affinities of bodily structure. But the 
closeness of these affinities is a fact. Man, as Archbishop Whately 
has said, besides being man, is also an animal. Science will ask, 
even if she never gets an answer, What is the common cause of 
this common structure ? The fact which it has always appeared to 
me most difficult to disengage from the theory of development, is 
the existence of rudimentary or aborted organs ; the existence of 
teeth, for example, in the jaws of the Whale — teeth which never 
cut the gum — and which are entirely useless to the animal. We 
have an inherent conviction that this must have some use in the 
future, or it must have had it in the past. Whether we look at it 
in the light of history, or prefer to regard it in the light of prophecy, 
it points to the existence of some derivative form in which these 
teeth have been, or are to be, turned to use. There is one sug- 
gestion on this subject which I cannot accept. When men were 
yet unwilling to admit the existence of life and death upon the 
globe so long before the creation of man, it used to be said that 
fossils were only “ sports of nature.” So in our own day, I have 
heard it said that rudimentary organs are merely intended to satisfy 
that condition of our finite minds, in virtue of wdiich we are unable 
to conceive creation, except in connection with some history and 
method of growth. And so, as a condescension to this weakness, 
aborted members are given to suggest a history which was never 
true, and a method which was never followed! Now, of one thing 
I feel as sure as I can be of any truth, viz., that there are 
no fictions in nature, and no jokes. Whatever natural things 
really point to, they point to faithfully; and the conclusions 
really indicated are never false. Abortive organs mean some- 
thing, and they mean it truly. Still, there is no proof that in- 
heritance is the only cause from which such structures can arise. 
In the inorganic world we know that not mere similarity, but 
