Robert Wiedersheim (1848 – 1923) was a German anatomist who is famous for publishing a list of 86 “vestigial organs” in his book 'The Structure of Man: An Index to His Past History'.[1]
Already during his school years Wiedersheim showed an interest in botany and zoology. However, he was not a good student and barely passed the final examination. His initial academic advancement was slow, until in 1876 he became an anatomist at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg where he taught until 1918[2]. He became an expert in comparative anatomy and published a number of relevant textbooks. He also collected early photographies and documents of scientists of his days.
In 1893 he published a list of vestigial organs. He writes, "comparative morphology points not only to the essentially similar plan of organization of the bodies of all vertebrates, ... but also to the occurrence in them of certain organs, or parts of organs, now known as 'vestigial.' “By such organs are meant those which were formerly of greater physiological significance than at present.”
He picked up on Darwin’s concept of “rudimentary” organs such as listed in the "The Descent of Man": the muscles of the ear, wisdom teeth, the appendix, the coccyx (tail bone), body hair, and the semilunar fold in the corner of the eye. This list was used as an argument for evolution as they were seen as evolutionary leftovers, of little use to the current organism. The list, however, contains structures which today are known to be essential, and thus represents a historical record of the physiologic understanding of the day. Creationists, on the other hand, have used the discredited examples of the list as an argument against evolution. There is no "scientific" proof, they say, of the uselessness of something: if you come across something whose use is unknown to you, that may simply show your ignorance of its utility. An example would be a "shoe horn" - a simple piece of metal that looks like a spoon with the part that should hold food inside out. If one assumed that the shoehorn was a spoon, it would of course appear useless.
Some biologists have asserted that it is impossible to identify useless organs.
Its shortcomings have been almost universally pointed out by modern authors, but the idea still has a prominent place in biological mythology.
— P. Erlich and *R. Holm, The Process of Evolution (1963), p. 66.
Since it is not possible to unambiguously identify useless structures, and since the structure of the argument used is not scientifically valid, I conclude that 'vestigial organs' provide no special evidence for the theory of evolution.
— S. Scadding, Do 'Vestigial Organs' Provide Evidence for Evolution?" Evolutionary Theory (1981), pp. 173-176.
Many vestigial organs have now been discovered by medical science to have fundamental uses. Many others simply act as "backup," being able to mimic or complement the function of other organs.
Although Wiedersheim originally published a list of 86, later interpretations enlarged his list to 180 vestiges. The zoologist Horatio Newman said in a written statement read into evidence in the Scopes Trial that "There are, according to Wiedersheim, no less than 180 vestigial structures in the human body, sufficient to make of a man a veritable walking museum of antiquities."[3]
It is important to note that a vestige is not necessarily a completely useless organ. Although defined as "useless" in popular media, a vestige as defined in evolutionary biology may still have some use, but the use has since diminished. This definition is consistent with Wiedersheim, who said that vestigial organs are "wholly or in part functionless" (Wiedersheim 1893, p. 200) and have "lost their original physiological significance" (p. 205).