The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-12-28
Strange Worlds.

In the opinion that in what we call
the lower animals there may BEL fifty
senses, as different from ours as hear
ing is from sight, and that even
within the boundaries of our own
senses there may he endless sounds
which we cannot hear, and coIors as
different as red from green, of which
we have no conception. The
familiar world which surrounds us
may be a totally different place to
other animal. To them it may be
full of music which we cannot hear,
of color which we cannot see, of sem
satiOns which we cannot conceive of"
In other words, says the New York
Commercial Advertiser, it may not
be in the starry heavens alone that
there are "other worlds than ours"
such worlds may exis: upon our own
planet. and the intelligence of insects
may be in contact with the universe
through channels of sense which are
unknown to us through experience,
and such creatures as have senses
bearing no likeness to the five that
man possesses may live in universe
totally different from that with
which man is acquainted.
On the part of Sir John Lubbock
this opinion is not mere speculation.
He has been led to it through long
and close study of insect life, and al
though the theory does not meet with
universal acceptance among scientific
men, and indeed was warmly oppos-
ed by the late NJ. Paul Bert, who
maintained that the world of lower
animals is essentially the same as
ours, yet there are many reasons TO
believe that Sir John takes a true
view of the subject. Experiments
made by Notthart some years ago go
to show that a common house fly, for
instance. can not see clearly at dis
tance greater than millimeter, and
that the utmost limit of its vision is
two feet, while it is extremely doubt
full that within that limit a fly can
distinguish cOlOrS. A fact like this
has a clear bearing upon Darwin'S
theory of the way in which plants are
aided or retarded in the struggle for
existence by insest perception of
color.
Lubbock seems also to have shown
through spectrum experiments with
ants that these insects cannot appre-
ciate light waves, or rather Yibra-
tions of the ether, until those vibra-
tons exceed the bounds of color as
we know it, and that they hear no
sound appreciable by our ears. I'M
der the ultra violet-that is to say,
under the most intense chemical rays
of the spectrum-ants were thrown
into the most violent perturbation,
while they went quietly about their
business under the cOlorS rays. A
pistol shot over their heads caused
them not the least disturbance, ex-
cept that which was occasioned by
the mechanical Earring of the earth
and air. and sound plainly was not
to them what it is to US. 1t is not
their minuteness that gives ants an
other world than ours, but the con-
structiOn Of their sense organs.
To depart now from the insect
world. 1t is generally accepted
theory that what are called the "rOds
and cones" in the human eye are the
true organs with which we distin-
guish colOrs. These organs are want
ing in many animals, as, for instance,
they are wanting in the eyes of sharks
and reaches among the fishes, and in
hedgehOgs, mOles ard bats among
mammals. so that, if the analogy
holds good, these animals can have
no sense of color. Among birds the
owl is but scantly supplied with rods
and cones, while birds of prey fly by
daylight. as gulls do, are most plenti-
fully endowed with them. Through
examination of the human eye and
the way in which it perceiYes color
1t has been concluded that to frogs
the whole world they see is yellow,
while to certain birds the entire Wis.,
ible creation must seem red-the
sky. the sun, the flowers, all. in
short. that comes within the range of
their vision is red. because the con,
struction of their eyes permits of the
perception of no other color. To
them the world must appear as it
does to US when we look through
piece of red glass.
This train of thought could be car.
ried much further. Observations re.
Gently made in Italy in regard to the
microbe of malaria show that at a
certain period of its development this
microscopic creature has enemies to
fight in a globule of blood, and that
in order TO escape from them it
makes use of its fagella, or whips,
with which it will try to beat off the