The claim is made that the so-called rudimentary organs in the human
body such as the appendix, are the remnants of more complete organs
inherited from our animal ancestors. It is a strange argument that a
once complete and useful organ in our alleged animal ancestors, when
it becomes atrophied in man, causes such an improvement and advance,
as to cause man to survive, when his ancestors with more perfect
organs became extinct. Man with less perfect organs became the
dominant species. If the perfect organ were better than the
rudimentary organ, how can man be the "survival of the fittest"? If
rudimentary organs are a proof of descent from animals with more
extensive, if not more perfect, organs, then both man and monkeys must
be descended from the rat, which has the longest proportionate
appendix of all. If unused muscles speak of our ancestry, the horse
has the strongest claim to be our ancestor.
But many organs, such as "the thyroid gland, the thymus gland, and the
pineal gland," formerly classified as rudimentary organs, are found to
be very useful and necessary.
Physicians have found the appendix very useful in preventing
constipation, which its removal usually increases. If we only knew
enough, we would, no doubt, discover a beneficial use for all the
so-called vestigial organs. Our ignorance is no argument against the
wisdom of their creation. The claim that human hair is vestigial is
spoiled by the fact that there is none on the back where most abundant
on simians.