Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-01-28
Compensation in Nature.

All Gods creatures cannot have every
thing, but compensation often supplies u
marked deficiency. The long aud flexible
trunk Of the elephant is a compensation for
his short aud unbending neck. If he had
no trunk, the elephant now so powerful
would be the most helpless creature on earth.
The hook on the wing of the bat enables il
to adhere to the sides Of rocks caves aud
buildings. Without this special provision
this animal could not survive. The crane
kind Of birds sock their food in the water,
yet they cannot swim for the want of web.
foot. To compensate for this deficiency,
they are furnished with long legs for wading
and long bills for cropping, ono or both.
The parrot has curious bill, and very
inconvenient on some accounts. The upper
part is so much bent, and so over-laps the
other, that without special arrangement it
could not open its beak wide enough to take
in its food. Hence the Creator has departed
from the general rule and made the upper
part movable. This is compensation.
Tho spiders web is substitute for wings,
to enable that animal to catch flies Some
insects have bue one eye, but this defect is
compensated for by making this eye a null
tiplyiDg glass, with a lens looking in every
direction. The drone bee has not less than
l,400 OF these lenses in its two eyes. The
spider has eight; the common house fly has
1000 in each eye; the dragon fly $4,000,
and the beetle rs 900.
The snai! has neither wings, feet, nor
thread to enable it to climb up the stalk Of
plant, yet vicid humOr discharged from
the skin gives it the power of motion. The
lobster has tight skin, or shell, that does
not grow with its growth, but remains hard
and fixed. How shall room be made for the
increase of its expanding body? 1t would
be hard to guess if we had not the fact
before US. At certain seasons the shell of
the lobster grows soft /; the body swells and
seams open. When loosened, the lobster
throws this shell off and rstirss into holes in
the rocks until a new and larger she'll ha,
grown over him. Some quadrupeds, such as
the sheep, deer and OK, are destitute of fore
teeth in the upper jaw, but they have com
pensation in the power to ruminate. And
in both cases the stomach Of the animal il
exactly adapted to the condition Of the food
thrown into it.
Ia birds the law Of compensation is evi.
dent also. Such as feed upon grain and
herbs, having no teeth, are provided with .
gizzard capable Of digesting the hardest sub
stances in an unbroken state. Why should
the bill and gizzard always be found to
gether? But birds of prey do not have
guards, simply because they do not ueeC
them. In all cases the digestive organ
bear an exact relation to the external instru
ment for procuring food.
Again, large class of animals are en-
tirely without feet. Yet each class has it
own peculiar method Of ,lOcOmotion, and th
is effected by peculias arrangement of tn
muscles and bones
Who can contemplate these facts, an,
such as these, without feelings OF admira
ton? Who that looks upon nature AM
studies its mechanism and its laws, and it
compensations, can fail to look through ma
ture up to natures God ? Indeed, the uu
devout philosopher and naturalist must b
mad.