Rudimentary Organs.—Another argument of the evolutionists is the presence in the human body of a number of so-called " rudimentary " muscles and organs. These are structural elements which in man do not serve any purpose, but which are important parts in the economy of some of the lower animals. It is believed that they have survived in man owing to the laws of transmission, although in an atrophied con dition and without any application to his present wants. There are many such, as the muscle with which some persons can move their ears and scalps ; the semilunar fold of the eyelids, which is a diminished repre sentative of the "nictitating membrane" of birds ; the vermiform appen dix of the small intestines ; and a number of small muscles occasionally found in the human subject. No plausible explanation of these relics of a lower anatomical structure has been offered except that they are the traces of an inferior ancestry.
Reversions.—Further evidence of a similar nature is that derived from the expression of the emotions, which presents striking similarities in Ulan 'and animals, and also in instances of what is called " reversion." The latter includes those cases where children develop the physical or mental traits of brutes, diverging far from the normal standard of the human race.
weight has also been attached to the argument from embryology. At a very early period of foetal life the human embryo does not differ from that of any other vertebrate animal. Later on, it resembles certain lower forms when adult ; and it is only at quite a late period in its history that the young human being presents marked differ ences from the young ape. In fact, it is not much of an exaggeration to
say that in its uterine existence the human child develops gradually through the various lower orders of organic forms until it reaches the highest. The inference is close at hand that the development of the embryo portrays within the limits of nine months the life-history of the race through the countless ages of geologic time.
Such, in a few words, are the arguments of the evolutionists. But they are by no means secure from criticism. Although many anomalies in human anatomy have been shown, the " connecting link " between man and any lower species has never been pointed out. It is extra ordinary, to say the least, that of the millions of families scattered all over the earth, not one has been discovered lacking the true specific qualities of man as laid down on a previous page. Nor has the delving of geologists in the older strata been more successful in this direction, though pursued with the greatest ardor. The facts from embryology and from the presence of rudimentary parts may be capable of an entirely different interpretation, as some able anatomists have pointed out. An unbiassed mind, therefore, while acknowledging that the Darwinian theory is the most plausible hypothesis yet offered to account for the facts stated, will not accept it as a completely demonstrated law of organic life as applied to man.