rudimentary structures, but what may be more descriptively
designated--in accordance with the theory of descent--obsolescent or
vestigial structures. It is, however, of great importance to add that
these structures are of such general occurrence throughout both the
vegetable and animal kingdoms, that, as Darwin has observed, it is
almost impossible to point to a single species which does not present
one or more of them. In other words, it is almost impossible to find a
single species which does not in this way bear some record of its own
descent from other species; and the more closely the structure of any
species is examined anatomically, the more numerous are such records
found to be. Thus, for example, of all organisms that of man has been
most minutely investigated by anatomists; and therefore I think it will
be instructive to conclude this chapter by giving a list of the more
noteworthy vestigial structures which are known to occur in the human
body. I will take only those which are found in adult man, reserving for
the next chapter those which occur in a transitory manner during earlier
periods of his life. But, even as thus restricted, the number of
obsolescent structures which we all present in our own persons is so
remarkable, that their combined testimony to our descent from a
quadrumanous ancestry appears to me in itself conclusive. I mean, that
even if these structures stood alone, or apart from any more general
evidences of our family relationships, they would be sufficient to prove
our parentage. Nevertheless, it is desirable to remark that of course
these special evidences which I am about to detail do not stand alone.
Not only is there the general analogy furnished by the general proof of
evolution elsewhere, but there is likewise the more special
correspondence between the whole of our anatomy and that of our nearest
zoological allies. Now the force of this latter consideration is so
enormous, that no one who has not studied human anatomy can be in a
position to appreciate it. For without special study it is impossible to
form any adequate idea of the intricacy of structure which is presented
by the human form. Yet it is found that this enormously intricate
organization is repeated in all its details in the bodies of the higher
apes. There is no bone, muscle, nerve, or vessel of any importance in
the one which is not answered to by the other. Hence there are hundreds
of thousands of instances of the most