The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1888-10-29
INSTINCTS THAT ARE LOST.
Or Is Man Really Heir Of All the Facui-
ties of the Animal Kingdom?


ties of the Animal Kingdom?
IF the doctrine be true thai man is real
" the heir of all the various species and
genera of the animal kingdom, it seems
a little hard upon us that, even by way OF
execution, we inherit none of the most
marvellous instincts of those species and
genera. and have to be content with
those greater but purely human faculties
| nv which even the most wonderful OF the
| animal instincts have been somehow ex-
| tincuished. Sir John Lubbock maintains
with good deal of plausibility that there
| ere insects. and very likely even higher
| animals, which perceive colors OF whlch
| we have no glimpse, and hear SOUNDS
| which to us are inaudible. Yet we never
hear of a human retina that includes Id
its vision those colors depending on Vlbra-
lions of the ether which are too slow or
too rapid for our ordinary eyes, nor OF a
human ear which is entranced with mu-
sic that to the great majority OF our
| species is absolutely inaudible. Again,
we never hear of a human being who
could perform the feat of which we were
told ONLY the other day in a bloodhound.
In dark night it followed up for three
miles the trail of a thief with whom the
bloodhound could never have been IN
contact Che had just purlolned some rolls
of tan from the lanyard in which the dog
was chained up), and finally sat down
under the tree in which the man had
taken refuge.
WHY. we wonder, are those finer pow
ers of discriminating and following the
track of a scent which so many Of the
lower animals possess, entirely extln-
guished in man. if man be the real heir
of all the various genera which show
powers inferior to his own? We see no
trace in animals of that high enjoyment
of the finer scents which make the bios
soming OF the spring flowers so great
delight to human beings, and yet mel
:, are entirely destitute of that almost un-
erring power Of tracking the path OF an
odor which seems to be one of the pr1ncl-
pal gifts of many quadrupeds and some
o birds. 1t is the same with the power OF
a dog or cat to find its way back to q
home to which it is attached, but from
which it has been taken by a route that it
cannot possibly follow on its return, even
if it had the power of observing that
+ route. which usually it has not had
Nothing could be more convenient than
such a power to lost child. But no one
ever heard of any child who possessed it.
Still more enviable is that instinct pos
sessed by so many birds of crossing great
tracts of land and sea without apparently
any landmarks or seamarks to guide
IS them, and of reaching a quarter OF the
globe which many of them have never
visited before, while those who have
: visited it before have not visited it Otter
lie enough to learn the way-at least, by any
rule which, in like circumstances, would
be of any use to human intelligence. The
- migratory birds must certainly be in pos
session of either senses or instincts en-
tirely beyond the range Of human imag
nation, and yet no one ever heard OF tn
survival of such sense or instinct In an,
member of our race. 1t may be said, IN
deed that men have either inherited O
reproduced the slave making instinct @
some of the military ants, though tina
Ja unfortunate and degrading instinct doe
not appear to have been inherited by an
of her higher animals which interven
between the insects and our own race
but this only enhances the irony OF on
destiny, if we do, indeed, in any sens
inherit from these insect aristocracles or
of the most disastrous instincts Of tt
audacious but INDECENT creatures whiC
ks. firht so much better than they work.
we have not inherited the architecture
instincts of bees or beavers, nor the spl
ming instincts of spiders, nor the pow
of the dog to track out its home, 1t Ii
little sad that we should have Inherit
the one disastrous instinct Of the ant
which it makes itself dependent on mo
timid and industrious species of its ov
nst. race, and thereby loses the power to he
itself.
What is still more curious is that ev
where human beings have wholly exec
tional and unheard of powers they betT
no traces of the exceptional and unhea
of powers of the races whose vital orga
cation we are said to inherit. ]
occasional appearance of very rare ma
rms. ematicaI powers, for instance, 80
from being in any sense applicable fr'
below, looks much more like inspirat
from above. The calculating boy "
could not even give any account OF
process whereby he arrived at corr
results which the educated mathematic
took some time to verify, certainly '
not reviving in himself any of the r
powers of the lower tribes OF anim'
,,e. Nor do the prodigies in music who SD
such marvellous power in infancy re'
to us any instinct of the bird, the
NJ musical creature except ourselves.
less, of course, does great moral gem
the genius of a Howard or Clarks
suggests any "Reminiscences of what d
pens in the world of animal Life
Spectator.
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