drupeds, possess valves. These are not only
useless to man, but when he lies upon his back they are an actual
hindrance to the free flow of the blood. In like manner, the inferior
thyroid veins, whose blood flows into the innominate, are obstructed by
valves at the point of junction.

We quote from him as follows: "There are two pairs of valves in the
external jugular and one pair in the internal jugular, but in
recognition of their uselessness they do not prevent regurgitation of
blood nor liquids from passing upward. An apparent anomaly exists in the
absence of valves from parts where they are most needed, as in the venae
cavae, spinal, iliac, haemorrhoidal, and portal. The azygos veins have
imperfect valves. Place men upon 'all fours' and the law governing the
presence and absence of valves is at once apparent, applicable, so far
as I have been able to ascertain, to all quadrupedal and quadrumanous
animals: _Dorsal veins are valved; cephalad, ventrad, and caudad veins
have no valves._"

Of the few exceptions to this rule, he considers the valves of the
jugular veins as in process of becoming obsolete, and the rudimentary
azygos valves as a recent development. Valves in the haemorrhoidal veins
would be out of place in quadrupeds, but their absence in man is a
serious defect in his organization, since the resulting engorgement of
blood gives rise to the distressing disease known as piles. The presence
of valves would obviate this.

No one can argue that this useless and, to some extent, injurious
condition is a designed result of creation. There could not, indeed, be
stronger evidence that man has descended from a quadruped ancestor. Dr.
Clevenger points out other serious results of the upright position of
the body, from which quadrupeds are free. One of these is the liability
to inguinal hernia, or rupture, which leads to much suffering and
frequent death in man. Prolapsis uteri is another, and a third to which
he particularly alludes is difficulty in parturition.

It has been suggested above that the thyroid gland may possibly be of
some minor functional importance, and that the thymus is developed in
the embryo sufficiently to be functional. As regards the latter, no one
is likely to maintain that an act of direct creation would include the
production of an organ of some slight and obscure utility to the embryo
and useless in later life. The strong probability is that this gland
belongs in the same category with