Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1889-12-13

Prof. Flower, the president of the Brit
| ish association, has recently said that he
| agrees with Sir John Lubbock in the opin-
| ion that in what we call the lower animals
| there may be fifty senses, as different
from ours as hearing is from sight, and
| that even within the boundaries of our
own senses there may be endless sounds
which we can not hear. and colors as diff
| ferent as red from green, of which we
| have no conception. The famil
lar world which surrounds us may be
| totally different place to other animals.
| To them it may be full of music which we
can not hear, of color which we can not
see, of sensations which we can not con-
| Ceive of.
On the part of Sir John Lubbock this
| opinion is not mere speculation. He had
| been led to it through long and close study
of insect life. and although the theory does
| not meet with universal acceptance among
| scientific men. and indeed was warmly ops
posed by the late NJ. Paul Bert, who main
| tanned that the world of lower animals is
| essentially the same as ours, yet there are
| MANY reasons to believe that Sir James
| takes true view on the subject. Expert
ments made by Notthart some years ago
| go to show that common house-hy. for
| instance, call HOU SEE CLEARLY DIT d ulsJdICt
! greater than millimeter, and that the ut
most limit of its vision is two feet. while
| it is extremely doubtful that within that
| limit fly can distinguish colors. A fact
| like this has a clear bearing upon Darwin
! theory of the way in which plants are aid
! ed 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 ether,
until those vibrations exceed the bounds of
| color as we know it. and that they hear no
sound appreciate by our ears. Under 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 color rays.
| A pistol shot over their heads caused them
| not the least disturbance, except that which
was occasioned by the mechanical JarTlng
| 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 another
| world than ours, but the construction of
| their sense organs.
To depart now from the insect world. 1t
is a generally accepted theory that what
are called the rods and cones in the
human eye are the true organs with which
we distinguish colors. These organs are
wanting in many animals, az. for instance
| they are wanting in the eyes of sharks and
reaches among the fishes. and In hedge
hogs, moles. and bats among mammals, so
that. if the analogy holds good, these ami
mails can have no sense of color. Among
birds the owl is but scantily supplied with
rods and cones, while birds of prey which
fly by daylight as gulls do, are most plen-
tlfully endowed with them. Through ex-
animation of the human eve and the way
in which it perceives color it has been con-
cluded that TO frogs the whole world they
see is yellow. while to certain birds the
entire 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 construction of tneir eyes
permits of the perception Of no othel' 5olor
To them the world must appear as it does
to us when we l3ok through piece of glass
This train of thought could be carried
further Observations recently made IN
regard to the microbe of malaria show
that at a certain period of its developments
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 t1agella. or whips. with which 1t tries
to beat off the inimical microbe that Is
bent ON absorbing it and generally ends by
doing So Here certainly is intelligent
adoption of means to ends, vet how diff
ferent from ours must be the world that
the malaria microbe finds within a drop of
the blood that runs within u.s. The I'M
iyerse appears to be as vast downward as II
- upward.