Note 40 — Chapter V · IRRECONCILABLE DIFFICULTIES CONNECTED WITH EVOLUTION

Perhaps nothing furnishes a more conclusive proof of our animal origin than the study of rudimentary structures—muscles, sense-organs, hair, bones, reproductive organs, etc. There are some which are “either absolutely useless, such as the mammæ of the male quadrupeds or the incisor teeth of ruminants which never cut through the gums; or they are of such slight service to their present possessors that we cannot suppose that they were developed under the conditions which now exist.”40 Of useless rudimentary organs, or parts of organs, there are not less than one hundred and seven in man.41 To this category belong the coccyx—the vestige of a tail—the muscles of the ear, the vermiform appendage, etc.