Vestigial means something that is left over somehow from the past. There was at a time, not too long ago, when tonsils and appendixes were considered as “second class organs.” “Take them out” was a common surgeon’s cry; “they are of no value anyway.” At that time, many organs in the body such as the appendix and tonsils were considered “evolutionary vestiges,” or something which may have been useful in our “evolutionary past,” but which is of “no evolutionary value now.” Relegated to second class status.
残留意即器官从远古以某种形式遗存下来。扁桃体和阑尾在不久以前被视为“二等器官”。“拿掉它，”普通外科医师声称，“它们毫无用处。”那一时期，体内很多器官象阑尾和扁桃体被看做“进化后的残留痕迹”，或者在过去的“进化”中有用，而现在没有进化价值了，因此被贬到二等地位。

This kind of concept, of course, is logically considered nonsense by today’s standards, since basically everything in the body, even though at first considered useless, seems to be always found to be “valuable” later, just awaiting our belated “discovery.”
用现在的标准看来这类观点实在是荒谬，体内的任何东西尽管起初看来无用处，后来发现都是有价值的，只是在等待我们迟来的“发现”。

My own appendix was removed in childhood (see “my “an appendix is not an appendix” story) for little reason, and undoubtedly affected by this “vestigial organ” concept. In fact I know many people who had operations of the abdomen, who would get their appendix removed, “as a bonus procedure” by the kind surgeon. I wonder how many fine healthy appendices have been removed because of this mistaken belief. And who knows the number of possible complications from people that get their appendixes removed unnecessarily for skimpy reasons.
我自己的阑尾在我幼年因为一个小小的缘由就被切掉（参看我的故事“阑尾不是一个附属品”）毫无疑问受了“残留器官”这个观点的影响。事实上我知道很多腹部动过手术的人的阑尾“作为手术的赠品”被好心的医生顺带切掉了。我好奇的是在这个错误观念下有好多好端端的阑尾给拿掉了。又有谁知道在依据不充分情况下毫无必要的切掉阑尾的人面临了多少可能的并发症。

As another example, doctors used to think that tonsils were “evolutionary vestiges” also, so that there were huge numbers of children who had their tonsils removed on the slightest pretext, such as larger tonsils or infection, resulting in many unnecessary deaths. Nowadays we realize that tonsils are useful for early defense against germs, and that surgery is usually unnecessary, so removal of tonsils has been sharply reduced. The consequent sharp reduction in mortality is now well proven.
另外一个例子，医生以前认为扁桃体也是“进化后的遗迹”，因此大批小孩仅仅因为诸如扁桃体增大或者感染等小小的缘由切除了他们的扁桃体，结果导致许多本可以避免的死亡。现在我们认识到扁桃体在早期抵御细菌的过程中是有用的，而手术通常是不必要的。扁桃体切除手术量由此骤减，随之骤降的死亡率就是明证。

But, in a less enlightened time, my wife’s brother died as a young man from a “standard” (now considered unnecessary) tonsil operation, and thus I have always had a keen personal interest in this. There was little reason for his surgery, only that it was commonly done for repeated infections of the tonsils.
但是在认识还不够明朗的时候，我的妻舅就死于“标准的” （现在认为不必要的）扁桃体摘除手术，所以我对这个手术总是非常的关注。仅仅因为扁桃体反复感染这个小小缘由就决定给他做了这个对他而言是致命的手术。

I have personally seen many children get their tonsils removed unnecessarily. Like many others, I was once a young pediatric intern, pressed into service to check the physical condition of infants and children about to go into tonsil surgery. During these screenings, one could be forgiven for thinking it was a factory process, such was the volume in many hospitals. It was indeed a great revenue generator for hospitals and doctors, just incidentally.
我亲眼目睹了很多小孩不必要的摘除了扁桃体。作为一个儿科实习医生我和他人一样也曾被迫去给要行扁桃体手术的婴儿和儿童做体格检查。在筛查过程中，认为这是工厂化作业的念头是能被够被谅解的，因为在多家医院都有大量的此类手术。无意中它竟成了医院和医生事实上的巨大利益制造机。

Young people die at times from the tonsil operation because bleeding after surgery from the tonsil area may not be recognized until it is too late, since the bleeding occurs in a hidden area at the back of the throat. Belief in such concepts as “evolutionary vestige” can be tragic.
不时有年轻人死于扁桃体手术后的术野出血，由于出血在咽后壁的隐蔽部位，发现时已经为时过晚。“进化遗迹”的观念可谓悲催。

In the past, doctors thought that the pineal gland was an evolutionary vestige, but now we know that it is an important endocrine organ that controls basic body rhythms (everything in the body has rhythms which are not totally understood as yet), among many other things.
过去，医生认为脑松果体是一个进化遗迹，但现在我们认识到它和许多其他的腺体一样是一个重要的内分泌器官，掌控着人体的基础节律（体内任何器官组织都有节律，尽管我们至今尚不完全了解。）

For example, one of its relatively newly discovered hormones, melatonin, has been popularly used to control “jet lag” when we fly internationally. The lesson is that we should not easily dismiss organs in the body as “useless,” since the Creator’s designs are truly ingenious, and unlikely to be “vestigial.” The term “vestigial” itself is now vestigial, as you can see from the following story.
举例来说，一个新发现的激素，松果体分泌的褪黑激素就主导着我们国际间飞行的“时差”。得到的教训是：既然造物主的设计是那么的精准，任何器官都不会是“遗迹”，我们不能轻易的把机体的器官当做“废物”打发掉。从下面的故事你会发现词汇“遗迹”自身倒成为了遗迹。

One day I was giving a lecture on a newly discovered hormone at the time, calcitonin, which comes from the thyroid gland (you can read my “funny thyroid” article in Reggietales.org). It was exciting to measure that new hormone in babies, something which few people had done. So one learned professor asked me a leading question after my lecture: “do you think this is a vestigial hormone?” implying that the hormone really might not be of much value in “modern life”.
一天，我正在做关于那个时候新发现的激素降钙素的报告，其来源于甲状腺（你可以在网站 Reggietales.org 上阅读我的文章“可爱的甲状腺”）。那时检测婴儿这个新的激素的水平是一件愉快的事情，这个工作先前没有人做过。我报告完毕，一位博学的教授问了我一个很有诱导性的问题：“你认为这是一个（进化后）的激素遗迹吗？”意思是这个激素在“现代生活”中是真的还是可能没有重要价值了。

I jokingly replied, “when was the last time you saw a vestigial hormone” implying that hormones considered “vestigial” years ago have been discovered later to have value, often having an amazing function that we in our ignorance have not yet “discovered” or imagined. The assembly of top scientists roared in laughter, catching the joke and agreeing with the gist of my riposte. Laughter is a good way to poke fun at scientific pomposity.
我戏虐的回答：“你最后一次看到遗迹激素是什么时候”。我的意思是多年前被认为是“遗迹”的激素后来发现竟有价值，其被我们忽略的神奇功能还没有被发现或者没有料想到。这些顶级科学家哄堂大笑，他们领悟了这个笑话，同意我的机敏回答。笑声是对科学上的狂妄自大最好的嘲弄。

One day at the Children’s Hospital of Cincinnati, which is a foremost children’s hospitals in the USA, the Professor of Urology was speaking. He had designed a new urinary bladder for children with very difficult bladder anatomy. He took the appendix of the child, and startlingly moved it to become the outlet channel for the bladder, which was a fascinating breakthrough operation. This really takes some imagination, both for the surgeon and for us (imagine a funnel like bladder draining into the appendix), but it was a perfect reconstruction.
一天在美国位列前茅的辛辛那提儿童医院，泌尿外科教授做报告。他为一个膀胱非常难于解剖的患儿设计了一个带有新的泌尿开口的膀胱。他利用这个患儿的阑尾，令人惊讶的把它移位使其成为膀胱的出口通道，这是一个令人振奋的突破性的手术。对外科医生和我们确实都需要想象力（想想用阑尾作为膀胱引流的通道），但这真是一个完美的重建。

I happened to be chairman of that particular meeting, a “grand rounds,” where the entire medical staff come together weekly for a clinical presentation. I made a concluding comment, “now I know why God made the appendix,” accompanied by echoing laughter. It is indeed my goal as a scientist, to find out why God made this or that, in this or that way, though not necessarily by making natural structures do unusual functions (that is why God made surgeons!!)
我恰好是那个特别会议的主席，那是所有的医生都参加的每周的临床病例讨论。我总结说：“我算明白了为什么上帝会制造阑尾。”大家在笑声中共鸣。我作为一名科学家，我的目标是探索为什么上帝会创造这个或那个，用这种方法或那种方法，但未必让自然的结构行使不寻常的功能（这或许是为什么上帝要制造出外科医生的缘由！！）