OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 149 there is an apparent necessity for the more highly differentiated organisms to be preceded by the less highly differentiated, the last mentioned being the apparatus with which the former are elaborated. It may be, then, that these apparatus can only work in the way they have been accustomed to do, and must be allowed to continue their roundabout processes because it would take æons of time to fit them more directly for the work now required. The process by which England keeps abreast of the times in the matter of war-ships, cannon, and small arms, may be likened to that of an organism somewhat rapidly varying in structure and function to adapt itself to changing conditions-to make the inward. forces balance the outward forces, so that life may not be crushed out of it. Now, suppose there is a sudden demand for breech-loading rifles: we take a number of muzzle-loaders and convert them. Suppose further, that the men who have hitherto made muzzle-loaders can do nothing else, and that the men who have hitherto converted the one form into the other are not equal to the task of making the breech-loader from its first elements, what course would wisdom dictate? We should go on making breech-loaders by the roundabout process. With regard also to the substitution of one organ for another, and the metamorphosis of the allantois in placental mammals, making it serve the purposes of nutrition instead of removing it altogether, there is no unwisdom, when you have used elaborate scaffolding in the erection of a building, to make it serve some further end before destroying it. Rudimentary or Aborted Organs.-Another important fact, allied to the facts of embryology, and presenting similar difficulties, is the existence of organs which never come to perfection, never serve the end for which they seem intended, and therefore on a superficial view appear indicative of incompetence or unwisdom. Organs or parts in the rudimentary or atrophied condition are extremely common throughout nature. For instance, rudimentary mammæ are very general in the males of mammals, and birds possess a 'bastard wing' which is considered to be a digit in a rudimentary state. Certain snakes have hind legs hidden beneath the integument; in many insects the wings are so reduced in size as to be utterly incapable of flight, and in beetles they not rarely lie under wing-cases firmly soldered together! The eyes of moles and of some burrowing rodents are rudimentary in size, and in some cases are quite covered up by skin and fur; fishes and other animals living in caves are mostly blind, though the eyeball remains; and in some of the crabs the footstalk for the eye remains, though the eye is gone-the stand for the telescope, though the telescope with its glasses is not present! Nothing would appear to be clearer than that eyes were intended to see with, and wings to fly with; what wisdom therefore on the hypothesis of special creationcould there be in putting wings under hard cases which prevent their use, and giving eye-balls without the use of sight? Now there is observable in living things a compensation or balancement of growth-parts which are no longer of service are reduced in size-" Nature," as Goethe expressed it, "in order to spend on one side, is forced to economise on the other.' This seems to hold true, to a certain extent, with our domestic productions if nourishment flows to one part or organ in excess, it rarely flows, at least in excess, to another part. DYS-TELEOLOGY REFUTED. 151 Thus it is difficult to get a cow to give much milk and to fatten readily at the same time. On this principle rudimentary organs, if they are the remnants of organs which once were fully developed, but have ceased to be useful through the altered habits of the creatures, ought to dwindle and disappear. How is it that they persist in existence? They are what Haeckel calls the purposelessnesses of nature. I confess, however, says Huxley, it has often appeared to me that the facts of Dys-teleology cut two ways. If we are to assume, as evolutionists in general do, that useless organs atrophy, such cases as the existence of lateral rudiments of toes in the foot of a horse place us in a dilemma. For either these rudiments are of no use to the animal, in which case, considering that the horse has existed in its present form since the pliocene epoch, they surely ought to have disappeared; or they are of some use to the animal, in which case they are of no use as arguments against Teleology. A similar but still stronger argument may be based upon the existence of teats, and even functional mammary glands, in male mammals. Numerous cases of "Gynaecomasty," or functionally active breasts in men, are on record, though there is no mammalian species whatever in which the male normally suckles the young. Thus there can be little doubt that the mammary gland was as apparently useless in the remotest male mammalian ancestor of man as in living men, and yet it has not disappeared. Is it then still profitable to the male organism to retain it? Possibly; but in that case its dys-teleological value is gone.1 Sir J. Paget, also, in his Hunterian Lectures, had argued that the rudimentary organs might be necessary to 1 Huxley: Academy, October 1869. withdraw from the blood some element which, if retained in it, would be injurious; but Mr Darwin brings instances in refutation, and says-When a man's fingers have been amputated, imperfect nails sometimes appear on the stumps: I could as soon believe that these vestiges of nails have appeared, not from unknown laws of growth, but in order to excrete horny matter, as that the rudimentary nails on the fin of the manatee were formed for this purpose. 1 Let us suppose that Mr Darwin is right, and then ask what explanation can be given of these structures that shall not conflict with the Divine wisdom. Agassiz asks, Does not the existence of a rudimentary eye in the blind-fish show that these animals, like all others, were created with their peculiarities by the fiat of the Almighty; and that this rudiment of eye was left them as a remembrance of the general plan of structure of the great type to which they belong? 2 This explanation would land us in all the difficulties we have already tried to meet; and Darwin asks concerning it, Would it be thought sufficient to say, that because planets revolve in elliptic courses round the sun, satellites follow the same course round the planets, for the sake of symmetry, and to complete the scheme of nature? Mr Spencer points out the further objection that the rudimentary teeth in the embryos of whales and calves disappear before the animals are born, so spoiling the typical resemblance. Neither special creation, nor any law of fixed types, explains the facts, nor frees them from the appearance of unwisdom; but while to all other hypotheses they are stumbling-blocks, they yield strong support to the hypothesis of evolution; and that hypothesis shows why 1 Origin of Species, p. 486. 2 Essay on Classification. RUDIMENTARY ORGANS EXPLAINED. 153 the facts should be what they are. If the rudiments relate to a former condition of their possessor, and have been retained by inheritance, they may be compared with the letters in a word, still retained in the spelling, though useless in the pronunciation, but which serve as a clue in seeking its derivation. In the ancestors they were fully developed, and constantly used; in the descendants they are not wanted, and continued disuse has reduced their size, allowing the material of nutrition to flow to other parts. The eyes of animals dwelling in the caves of Styria and Kentucky have become rudimentary, because for generations the animals have lived in the dark; birds inhabiting oceanic islands have seldom been forced to take flight, and have ultimately lost the power of flying; the beetles of small and exposed islands, when they sought to cross the sea, were lost and only those which had no roaming propensity were preserved, their wings shrivelling at last through disuse. On this view we see a beautiful adaptation of each species to its new circumstances-a power of self-adjustment between the animal organization and the environment which affects it, such as must increase our admiration of the wisdom of God, unless we are deluded by the notion that what can be explained by secondary causes has no first cause. As to the retention of even the rudiment, and spending the powers of nutrition on that when it has become utterly useless, the analogy used before will serve us here the water-supply having once been laid down to a line of houses, it may cost more to remove the pipes than to leave them where they are. There is a disposition to cut out the "rudimentary" letters of words that have a history-to spell favour without the u, and develope without the final e—and some people wish |