Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1890-05-27
MIND sUpERsEoss INSTINCT:
How Man Has Lost Many Gifts Possessed
by tho Lower Animals.


How Man Has Lost Many Gifts Possessed
by tho Lower Animals.
II tho doctrine no truo that man is
really tho hoir of all tho various species
and genera of tho animal Kingdom, it
seems little hard upon us, SAYS tho
American Analyst, that ovcl by way Of
exception wo inherit mono Of tho most
marvellous instincts of those species
and genera, and havo to BIO content with
those greater but purely human fac
uIt1cs by which oven tho most wondcr-
full of animal instincts havo boon some
how oxtinguishcd. Sir John Lubbock
maintains with good doal OF plausi-
bility that thoro arc insects, and worry
likely oven higher animals, which per-
ccivc colors of which wo havo no
glimpse and hear sounds which arc to
us inaudiblo. Yet wo mover hear of g
human rotina that includes in it's vision
those colors depending on vibrations of
tho other which arc too slow or too
rapid for our ordinary cyos, nor Of o
human car which is cntrancod with nu-
sic that to tho great majority of cur
Species is absolutely inaudiblo.
Again, wc mover hear of human bo-
Ing who could perform tho fcat, of
which wo wcro told only recently. Of g
bloodhound. III dark night it fol-
lowed up for thrco miles tho trail Of o
thief with whom tho bloodhound could
have ncvcr boon IN contact (ho had Just
purloi1cd soro rolls of tan from tho
tanyard in which tho dog was chained
up), and finally sat down undcr tho trco
in which tho man had tallcn rcfugo.
Why, VIC wonder, arc those finer pow
CTS for discriminating end following tho
track OF tho scent which so many of tho
lower animals possess entirely OK
tinGni9hcd in man. if man bo tho real
heir Of ell tho various genera which
show poWor inferior to his own?
Wo 500 no trace in animals Of that
high enjoyment OF tho lnor scents
which mako tho blo3soming of tho
oprinG flowers 80 great delight to
human beings, and yet mon arc entirely
destitute Of that almost unorring power
of tracking tho path of all odor, which
seems to bo ono Of tho principal gifts Of
many quadrupods aad some birds. 1t 10
tho samo with tho power Of dog or cat
to find it3-waY back to homo to which
1T Il, attached, but from which it has
boon talscn by y route that it can not
had tho powor Of observing that route,
which usually it has not. Nothing could
DO moro convenient than such :: powcr
to lost child. But no ono ovor hoard
Of any child who possessed it.
Still moro onviablo is that instinct
possessed by SO many birds of crossing
great tracts of land and goa without ap-
parcntly any landmarks or scarlarl1s to
guido thcm, and of reaching quarter of
tho Globo which many of thom havo
mover visited before, whilo those who
havc visited it before havo not visited it
often enough to learn tho way-at loast
by any rulo which, in like circur1-
stances, would DO Of any uso to human
intelligence. Tho migratory birds must
certainly DO in possession of cithcr
senses or Instincts entirely beyond tho
range Of human imagination, and yct no
ono ever hoard Of tho survival Of such
sonso Of instinct in any laor1bcr Of our
race. 1t laay DO said. indeed, that mon
have either inherited or reproduced tho
GlGvc-raling instinct OF somo of tho
military ants, though that unfortunate
and degrading instinct docs not appear
to havc been Inherited by any OF tho
higher animals which intervene botwcon
tho insects and our own race; bit this
only enhances tho irony of our destiny,
If wo do, indeed, III any sonso inherit
from these insect artiDtocracics ono of
tho most disastrous instincts OF
tho cudacious but indolcnt Great
urcs which fight so much bottor
than they work. If wo havo not
inherited tho architectural instincts of
bees or beavers, nor tho spinning in
otincts Of spiders, nor tho powor Of tho,
dog to track out his homo, it is q littlo
cad that wo should havo inherited tho
ono disastrous instinct Of tho ant by
which it makes itself dependent on o
moro timid andindustriou88 species of it's
own rcco, and thoroby losos tho powor
to help itself.