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Chap I.
Rudiments.
11

like a true tail "extending considerably beyond the rudimentary legs."[1] In the embryos of all air-breathing vertebrates, certain glands, called the corpora Wolffiana, correspond with, and act like the kidneys of mature fishes.[2] Even at a later embryonic period, some striking resemblances between man and the lower animals may be observed. Bischoff says that the convolutions of the brain in a human fœtus at the end of the seventh month reach about the same stage of development as in a baboon when adult.[3] The great toe, as Professor Owen remarks,[4] "which forms the fulcrum when standing or walking, is perhaps the most characteristic peculiarity in the human structure;" but in an embryo, about an inch in length, Prof. Wyman[5] found "that the great toe was shorter than the others; and, instead of being parallel to them, projected at an angle from the side of the foot, thus corresponding with the permanent condition of this part in the quadrumana." I will conclude with a quotation from Huxley,[6] who, after asking, does man originate in a different way from a dog, bird, frog or fish? says, "the reply is not doubtful for a moment; without question, the mode of origin, and the early stages of the development of man, are identical with those of the animals immediately below him in the scale: without a doubt in these respects, he is far nearer to apes than the apes are to the dog."


Rudiments.—This subject, though not intrinsically more important than the two last, will for several reasons be treated here more fully.[7] Not one of the higher animals can be named which does not bear some part in a rudimentary condition; and man forms no exception to the rule. Rudimentary organs must be distinguished from those that are nascent; though in some cases the distinction is not easy. The former are either absolutely useless, such as the mammæ of male quadrupeds, or the incisor teeth of ruminants which never cut through the gums; or they are of such slight service to their present possessors, that we can hardly suppose that they were developed under the

  1. Prof. Wyman in 'Proc. of the American Acad. of Sciences,' vol. iv. 1860, p. 17.
  2. Owen, 'Anatomy of Vertebrates,' vol. i. p. 533.
  3. 'Die Grosshirnwindungen des Menschen,' 1868, s. 95.
  4. 'Anatomy of Vertebrates,' vol. ii. p. 553.
  5. 'Proc. Soc. Nat. Hist.' Boston, 1863, vol. ix. p. 185.
  6. 'Man's Place in Nature,' p. 65.
  7. I had written a rough copy of this chapter before reading a valuable paper, "Caratteri rudimentali in ordine all' origine del uomo" ('Annuario della Soc. d. Nat.,' Modena, 1867, p. 81), by G. Canestrini, to which paper I am considerably indebted. Häckel has given admirable discussions on this whole subject, under the title of Dysteleology, in his 'Generelle Morphologie' and 'Schöpfungsgeschichte.'