West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-02-17
ABOUT PARASITES.
Social and Moral Parasites Defined
The Inevitable Penalty Of Degen-
Grafton.

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The Inevitable Penalty of Degen-
Grafton.
The Rev. Hugh O. Pentecost is
one of the most original and eloquent
preachersin the country. He has
three congregations. Every Sunday
morning he delights an audience in
New York; in the evening he preach
es in Brooklyn, and at night in Jer-
sey city. 1t surprises US. his ser
mons are not reported and sold to
newspapers as prepared matter"
by the enterprising publishers who
furnish those delivered by Talmage.
The following is rather imperfect
sketch" of the address delivered by
Mr.. Pentecost January 29th. Its
tone was one of scathing denuncia-
tion of all who unwarrantably take
advantage of the labor of others,
whether in social, moral or religious
matters.
After defining the nature of a par
asite, as the word is understood by
naturalists, Mr.. Pentecost pointed
ont that the most marked feature of
parasitic life is degeneracy-a de-
scent into a less highly organized
form of life. Said he:
The little parasite called the sac
culina begins life as the nauplius, a
rather interesting little water ami
nal with several pairs of legs, fur
nished with. fringes that serve as
fins or swimmers. In that state it
is an altogether respectable member
of society, swimming about and get
ting its living as any honest and in
dustrious animal should. BY and
by, however, it changes its form
little, and begins to follow the ex-
ample of its ancestors for genera
tions. 1t has discovered through
hereditary instinct that there is an
easier way to get living than by
working for it, and accordingly, as
did it's fathers and grandfathers be-
fore it, seeks the body of hermit
crab, to which it fastens itself, send
ing a pair of legs or fins into the
crabs body, by which it becomes
firmly attached to its host, and
which finally develop into roots,
through which sustenance is sucked
directly from the crab. Its wander
ings are now over. 1t no longer
roams to and fro, in hanger from
other creatures, seeking precarious
livelihood by the sweat of its brow.
The crab now does all the work; it
finds food and digests it. The sac
culina has nothing to do but absorb
it. But now singular change comes
over the creature. Instead of being
the highly organized thing it was in
the nauplius state, it begins to lose
it's various organs. The legs and
swimmers being no longer of use,
since it has taken up its final resi-
dence in the body of the crab, drop
off; the organs of the stomach, hav-
ing nothing farther to do in the way
of digesting food, since the food is
all digested by the crab before the
sacculina gets it, degenerates and
finally disappear, and the result is
that the merry little nauplius which
once went gaily through the water
on its own account, producing and
self-respecting creature, becomes in
the sacculina stage a mere sack, en-
tirely without organs of any kind
except roots, which are simply little
pipes, through which food is pumped
into its body from the crab. 1t is
henceforth disgusting and hateful
creature, terribly punished by nature
in this degeneration for being will
ling to get board and lodging, all the
necessities and luxuries of life, with
out any effort on its own part. 1t
has an easy berth, it is true. but it
pays terrible penalty in this fright
ful loss of every organ which is
needful to place it in the category of
decent animal life.
The hermit crab itself IS also a
fair specimen of the life and fate of
a parasite. Every one who is famil-
lar with the sea shore has seen the
hermit crab, which may be recog
nized as always living in the cast off
shell of some mollusk. Now this
shell does not belong to the crab,
that is the crab did not make it.
We may suppose that the hermit
crab was once an ordinary crab, but
being of an indolent disposition he
thought it useless to labor for the
building of a shell of his own, such
as we find on the backs Of most
crabs, and which are meant f,r pro-
lection from the teeth of fish and
claws of other enemies, when there
were so many empty shells lying all
about him on the sea bottom. With
this thought he crawled into an
empty sheel, and the tendency to do
so in his progeny has been handed
down until now the hermit crab is
wretched parasite, or rather half
parasite, for it must be said in his
favor that he is not despicable a