The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-08-14
LOST INSTINCTS.

LOST INSTINCTS.
Sounds, Sights and Colors Known to .ini-
mails and Not to Man.
II the doctrine be true that man is
really the heir of all the various species
and genera of the animal kingdom it
seems little hard upon US tnat even
by way of exception, we inherit mono
of the more marvellous Instincts OF
those species. and genera, and have to
be content with those greater but pure
ly human faculties by which the most
wonderful of animal instincts have
been extinguished. Sir John Lubbock
maintains there are insects and very
likely even higher animals. which per-
ceive colors OF which We have no
glimpses and hear sounds which to US
are inaudible. Yet we never hear Of q
human retina that includes in its vision
those colors depending on vibrations of
the ether which are too slow or too
rapid for our ordinary eyes, nor Of q
human eur which is entranced with
music that to the great majority OF our
species is absolutely inaudiblc.
Again, we never hear of q human be-
ing who could perform the feat of wiic!
we were told only recently of Il blood
hound In dark night it followed UP
for three miles the trail of thief with
whom the bloodhound could never
have been in contact Che had just pur
Joined some rolls Of tan from the tan
yard 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 powers
for discriminating and following tie
track of the scent, which So many Of
the lower animals possess, entirely ex
:inguished in man, if man be the real
heir of all the various genera which
show powers inferior 10 his own?
We see no trace in animals Of that
high enjoyment of the finer scents
which make the blossomins of the
spring flowers so great 4 delight 10
human beings, and yet men are entirely
destitute of that almost unerring power
of tracking the path Of an odor which
seems to be one of the principal gifts Of
many quadrupeds and some birds |,
is the same with the power of 4 dog OF
cat to find its way back to Il home to
which it is attached, but from which II
has been taken by a route that it can
not possibly follow on its return, even
if it had the power of observing thar
route, which usually it has not Nothing
could be more convenient than such 4
power TO lost child Bat none ever
heard of child who possessed it.
Still more enviaole is that instinct
possessed by SO many birds Of crossing
great tracts of land and sea without APP
parently any landmarks: or scenarios 10
guide them, and of reaching Il quarter
of the globe which many of them have
never visited before, while those who
have visited it before have not visited
it often enough to learn the way
The migratory birds must possess
either senses or instincts entirely be
yond the range of human Imagination,
and yet no one ever heard OF the sur
cival OF such sense or instinct in any
smember of our race. 1t may be said,
indeed, that men have either inherited
Or some way reproduced the slave max
ing instinct of some Of the military
ants; but this only enhances the irony
of our destiny if we do indeed in any
sense inherit from these insect arjstoc
racies one of the most disastrous in
stincts of the audacious but INDECENT
creatures which fight so much bette
thar they work. What is still more
curious is that even where human De
ings have wholly exceptional and TN
heard of powers they betray no traces
of the exceptional and unheard OF pow
ars of the races whose vital orgaIiza
lion we are said to inherit.
The occasional appearance of yer,
rare mathematical powers, for instance
so far from being in any sense eXpli.
cable from below, looks much more
like inspiration from above. The cal
:ulating boy. who could not even give
any account of the process whereby lie
arrived at correct results which the ed
ucated mathematician took some time
TO verify, certainly was not rcviving in
himself any of the rare powers Of the
over tribes of animals Nor do the
orodigies in music who show such mar
'elous power in infancy rceail to rs
my instinct Of the bird, tie or.'y mu
;ical creature except ourselves. SJiD
ess, of course does great moral Genius,
he genius of 4 Howard or Il CIarlison