The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1889-12-19
STRANGE WORLDS,

The Rods and Cones in the Human Eye
Wonders Of tie Universe,
Exchange.
Prof, Flower, the President Of thu
British association, has recently sale
that he agrees with Sir John Lubbock
in the opinion that in what we call TIT
lower animals there may be "ffty senses
as different from ours as hearing is from
sight, and that even within the bound,
aries Of our own sense there may be
endless sounds which we can mol
hear, and Colors as different az
red from green, Of which We have
no conception, The familiar
world which surrounds US may BIZ
a totally different place TO other animals,
To them II may be full OF music which
we can not hear, Of color which w can
not see, Of sensations which we can not
conceive Of" In other words, says the
New York Commercial Advertiser, II may
not be In the starry heavens alone that
there are "other worlds than ours; such
such worlds may exist upon our own
planet, and the intelligence OF insects
may DO In contact with the universe
through channels OF sense which are un.
known to us through experience, and
such creatures as have senses bearing no
likeness to the five that man possesses
may live In q 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 II through long and close
study Of insect life, and although the
theory does not meet with universal nc.
ceptance among scientific men, aud in.
deed was warmly opposed by the late NJ,
PAU Bert, who maintained that the
world Of lower animals Is essentially the
same US 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 20 to show that
u Common houseAy, for instance, can
not see clearly at y distance greater than
u millineter, and that the utmost limit
Of It's vision is two feet, while it Ia OK.
tremely doubtful that within that limits
fly a distinguish colOrs, A fact like
this has q clear bearing upon Darwin's
theory OF the way In which plants are
aided or retarded In the struggle for
existence by insect perception Of color
Lubbock seems also to have shown
through spectrum experiments with ants
that these insects can not appreciate
light waves, or rather vibrations Of the
until those vibrations exceed the
bounds Of color as we know 1t, and that
they hear no sound %appreclabie by our
ears. Under tho ultra violet-that Is To
say, under tho most intense chemical
rays Of the s%peCtrum-ants were thrown
into the most violent perturbation, while
went quietly about their business
the color rays. A pistol shot over
their heads caused them not the least
except that which was oc-
casioned by the mechanical jarring Of
earth aud air, and sound plainly was
not to them what 1t Is to US. II Is not
their minuteness that gives ants another
world than ours, but the construction OF
their sense organs.
To depart now from the insect world.
1t Is q generally accepted theory that
what are called the rods and cones" In
the human eye are the true orgaus with
we distinguish COlOrs. These or.
CANS are wanting in many animals, as,
for Instance, they are wanting in the
eyes OF sharks and reaches among the
and in hedgehogs, nloles and bats
among mammals, so that, II the analogy
holds good, these animals can have no
sense OF color. Among birds the owl Is
but s~cantily supplied with rods and
while birds OF prey which fly by
daylight, as gulls do, are most plentifully
endowed with them. Through examina.
ton Of the human eye and the way In
which 1t percelves color II has been con.
that to frogs the whole world they
see is yellow, while to certain birds the
visible creation must seem red
the sky, the sun, the flowers, all, In
short, that Cotues'within the range Of
their vision Is red, because the construc.
ton Of their eyes permits Of the percep.
ton OF no other color. To them the
world must appear as 1t does 10 US when
We look through a piece Of red glass.
This train Of thought could b. carried
much further. Observations recently
made In Italy in regard TO the miCrobe
oil malaria show that at d certain period
OF It's development this microscopic Crea.
Lure has enemies to fight In a globule Of
blood, and that In order to escape from
them II makes USE OF It's f~lagella, or
whips, with which II will try to beat of
the ininical niCrobe that is bent on alb.
sOrblng 1t and generally ends by doing
so, Here certainly is intelligent adapta.
ton OF means to ends, yet how different
from ours must b. the world that the
malaria miCrobe finds within a drsp OF
the bloed that rune within usl The uni.
verse appears to be as vast downward as
1t Is upward.