... The hypothesis put forward in this paper
depends in no degree upon the completeness of our knowledge of the
former condition of the organic world, but takes what facts we
have as fragments of a vast whole, and deduces from them something
of the nature and proportion of that whole which we can never know
in detail....
Another important series of facts, quite in accordance with, and
even necessary deductions from, the law now developed, are those
of _rudimentary organs_. That these really do exist, and in most
cases have no special function in the animal economy, is admitted
by the first authorities in comparative anatomy. The minute limbs
hidden beneath the skin in many of the snake-like lizards, the
anal hooks of the boa constrictor, the complete series of jointed
finger-bones in the paddle of the manatee and the whale, are a few
of the most familiar instances. In botany a similar class of facts
has been long recognised. Abortive stamens, rudimentary floral
envelope and undeveloped carpels are of the most frequent
occurrence.
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