e apparatus involved in
making the web would be useless until sufficiently developed to make a
web. The same is true," he continues, "of the sting of the scorpion, the
stings of bees, the mandibles of spiders with the gland of poisonous
fluid at the base, and the poison apparatus of serpents. All of these
glands for secreting poison would be useless until they could secrete a
harmful fluid. The spurs of birds present further difficulties to the
theory of evolution. Most birds have no spurs. When they possess them,
as a rule the males alone have them well-developed, while they are
rudimentary in the females. In some cases, however, both sexes possess
them in a well-developed form. But how could a spur be evolved in either
sex? As a rudiment, it would for many generations be entirely useless
for any purpose, and consequently it would not be preserved by natural
selection, nor in any other possible way, so far as I can see. The spurs
are in the best possible position on the legs for combat. Why did they
appear in the best place and nowhere else? As useless rudiments they
would be quite as likely to survive in one place as in another. If spurs
could not have been preserved by natural selection through their
rudimentary stage, why assume that they have been evolved according to
this law? If they could survive through the critical rudimentary period
till they became of use, why not assume that their evolution was
continued according to the same law? The fact is, however, that we know
of no law according to which they could have been evolved." The bat is
another highly specialized animal. In many respects it resembles the
mole, but its hands are, enormously expanded, and the exceedingly long
fingers are connected by a soft membrane, making a most serviceable wing.
It is not extremely likely, assuming the development theory to be true,
that both the mole and the bat sprang from a common ancestor? And was
not that ancestor probably a wingless, though not a legless mammal? Now,
how came the bat to acquire his wings? Did he attempt to spring into the
air and seize a passing insect, and reach out his paws to catch it? And
did those paws gradually become enlarged, till, after some generations,
they were real wings? But what happened in the meantime to those
connecting links whose wings were but partly developed? A bat with wings
only half grown would be a helpless creature, and would surely perish. A
mole with hands terminating in lon