"dysteleology" in view of its philosophic consequences. Nearly every
organism (apart from the very lowest), and especially every
highly-developed animal or plant, including man, has one or more
organs which are of no use to the body itself, and have no share in
its functions or vital aims. Thus we all have, in various parts of our
frame, muscles which we never use, as, for instance, in the shell of
the ear and adjoining parts. In most of the mammals, especially those
with pointed ears, these internal and external ear-muscles are of
great service in altering the shell of the ear, so as to catch the
waves of sound as much as possible. But in the case of man and other
short-eared mammals these muscles are useless, though they are still
present. Our ancestors having long abandoned the use of them, we
cannot work them at all to-day. In the inner corner of the eye we have
a small crescent-shaped fold of skin; this is the last relic of a
third inner eye-lid, called the nictitating (winking) membrane. This
membrane is highly developed and of great service in some of our
distant relations, such as fishes of the shark type and several other
vertebrates; in us it is shrunken and useless. In the intestines we
have a process that is not only quite useless, but may be very
harmful--the vermiform appendage. This small intestinal appendage is
often the cause of a fatal illness. If a cherry-stone or other hard
body is unfortunately squeezed through its narrow aperture during
digestion, a violent inflammation is set up, and often proves fatal.
This appendix has no use whatever now in our frame; it is a dangerous
relic of an organ that was much larger and was of great service in our
vegetarian ancestors. It is still large and important in many
vegetarian animals, such as apes and rodents.

There are similar rudimentary organs in all parts of our body, and in
all the higher animals. They are among the most interesting phenomena