256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 
PARASITIC CULTURE 
By GEORGE HE. DAWSON, PH.D. 
SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 
T is a fact well recognized in biology that a functionless organ is 
not tolerated by nature. In the evolution of life, whenever any 
organic structure has fallen into disuse, it has forthwith come under 
the law of atrophy and elimination. Until this law of atrophy and 
elimination is satisfied, the useless organ is a drain upon the vitality of 
the organism as a whole. It gives no equivalent for the support it 
derives from the life of which it is a part. In other words, it is para- 
sitic. As a parasitic organ, moreover, it not only uses up energy that 
should go to the other organs that have a vital function to perform, 
but it also tends to become diseased and thus to impair the health of 
the entire organism. 
There are numerous illustrations in the human body of the disuse 
and atrophy of organs, as well as of the incomplete elimination and 
disease of such organs. Thus there are many muscular structures, such 
as those of the pinna, epicranius and the platysma myoides, that are 
at present functionless and far on the way to complete atrophy. These 
useless organs are comparatively harmless, though, in strict truth, they 
must be nourished at the expense of the rest of the organic life. There 
are other functionless organs, however, that are not so harmless. Such 
is the vermiform appendix, in man a useless and retrogressive structure, 
which is apt to become the seat of serious disease. Such also are various 
functionless ducts, as, for example, the parovarium, which frequently 
become the seats of tumors, more or less malignant and destructive 
of life. 
All these useless and, in a sense, parasitic organs of the human body, 
which modern research in the fields of physical anthropology, anatomy 
and embryology has brought to light and explained, point to laws of 
development that have a profound significance for every department of 
effort in which the control and improvement of man’s life is an object. 
These laws are already beginning to be recognized by scientific edu- 
cators. It is seen that the education of the mind and of the body 
consists essentially in doing what nature has been doing throughout the 
biological ages—that 1s to say, producing favorable variations through 
adjusting individuals to a progressive environment, perpetuating and 
perfecting these variations as more efficient organs of life, and getting 
rid of outgrown and useless organs so that no energy may be diverted 
