the adjoining
parts in the embryo, than in the adult; so that the organ at this early age
is less rudimentary, or even cannot be said to be in any degree
rudimentary. Hence, also, a rudimentary organ in the adult is often said to
have retained its embryonic condition.

I have now given the leading facts with respect to rudimentary organs. In
reflecting on them, every one must be struck with astonishment: for the
same reasoning power which tells us plainly that most parts and organs are
exquisitely adapted for certain purposes, tells us with equal plainness
that these rudimentary or atrophied organs, are imperfect and useless. In
works {454} on natural history rudimentary organs are generally said to
have been created "for the sake of symmetry," or in order "to complete the
scheme of nature;" but this seems to me no explanation, merely a
re-statement of the fact. 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? An eminent physiologist accounts for the
presence of rudimentary organs, by supposing that they serve to excrete
matter in excess, or injurious to the system; but can we suppose that the
minute papilla, which often represents the pistil in male flowers, and
which is formed merely of cellular tissue, can thus act? Can we suppose
that the formation of rudimentary teeth, which are subsequently absorbed,
can be of any service to the rapidly growing embryonic calf by the
excretion of precious phosphate of lime? 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.

On my view of descent with modification, the origin of rudimentary organs
is simple. We have plenty of cases of rudimentary organs in our domestic
productions,--as the stump of a tail in tailless breeds,--the vestige of an
ear in earless breeds,--the reappearance of minute dangling horns in
hornless breeds of cattle, more especially, according to Youatt, in young
animals,--and the state of the whole flower in the cauliflower. We often
see rudiments of various parts in monsters. But I doubt whether any of
these cases throw light on the