Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1885-11-26
WISE FOOlISHNESS.

WISE FOOLISHNESS.
The Self-Evident Absurdity of an English
GentIeman's Theory of SeIf-Adaptation
of Birds and Flowers.
A late number of the Pail Mail Ga
sette contained an article by an English
gentleman of some note as naturalist,
which was mainly about humming
birds and flowers. 1t gravely asserted
that, through ages, each has reacted
upon the other In so many words it
claims that the birds have adapted
themselves to the flowers by acquiring
which must, of course, mean by the
end through generations of birds. at
last crowned with success-long and
dart.ng barbed tongues, and that the
lowers, on their part, have repaid the
compliment by adapting themselves, in
feturn-throu9h generations of flowers
to the habits of the birds, and .ac-
curing correspondingly deep carol
las. Further, it is represented that
certain species of flowers ..devote
themselves exclusively TO certain
species of birds, and the reverse. 1t is
gravely said of these flowers:
They heightened their tubes out Of all pro-
portion to the tongues of nectar sucking in
sects, so that only the favored birds them
selves could obtain access TO the coveted
honey with its accompanying swarm OF flies
and beetles.
So again we are told:
In every case, the tube of the flower exactly
corresponds IN length to the beak and tongue
OF the SPECIAL humming- bird, etc.
If this were avowedly pure fancy, we
should have nothing to say about it.
If a poet were dreaming thus in mu-
steal and measured Numbers, we might
admire his song. But for a learned
studen: TO invite men to believe such
stuff as advanced natural science, is
another matter altogether. Let Us see
what conditions are necessarily involved
in it, and how impossible they are.
In the first place, it involves brain
or some equivalent apparatus hay
ing the power of thought and able, not
merely to reflect upon birds. flowers
and the relations. and what BELTS
those relations. but also able to survey
the whole scheme of nature n order
10 Judge what style of bird or flower
may promise to suit those relations
best.
In the second place it involves will
power strong enough at least to make
the persistent effort to modify its situa-
ton.
In the third place. it involves con-
tinuity of philoSophic teaching and
meditation as TO all this from genera
10 he. g
the birds and the flowers.
In the fourth place. it involves a con-
troll on the part of these generations of
humming- birds en- the one side, and
flowers on the other, by intellect and
viii. of their physical conditions and
capabilities which goes quite beyond
any such control possessed by man.
Our Saviour said: (Which of YOU by
being anxious can add one cubit unto
his stature; and human history may
be detied to produce a single instance
in which a man born with pug nose
has been able by his own will-power-
however energetically put forth to
change the same to the eagle beaked
Roman variety. Yet here we have a
theory that bird can elongate its bill
and a flower its corolla, by wishing and
willing to do so.
Now. # ali these things are true and
birds and flowers have. so to speak.
walked along that track, where are the
foot prints? If humming- birds and
trumpet-fowers are furnished with
brains to this extent, where are those
brains located. and why has no scalpel
ever revealed them? VIII the Pail Nal
writer be so good as to show the world
some faint traces of cephalic ganglions
in the heads of the birds and the caiyces
of the flowers; or will he affirm that
the birds and the flowers are or
gained on higher and more refined
plan, and one less traoeablc in its ma
terial connections. than are men.
Still further. when our siseacre COM
mences ITO explain, will. he be good
enough to state what was the need of
all this clongative effors9 BY his
hypothesis. the 1rochili began with
short bills which. through generations
of persistent pushing. on tip-toe, SO to
speak. they have extended to the pres
.ent length: and the Lonieera began
with short csrollas, which, through ages
of ceaseleSs Etraining. they have .elau-
gated to the emergency. What we are
ANXIOUS to know is, the need of al this
toll; and why both parties to the work
were not relatively as well off when
they began as they can be now?
o star-eyed Science. hast thou wandered thus.
And thy great mos ntain brought forth but
this mus!
-ConsregdtionalisE