San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-05-06
The Daily Eight.
TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1890.
For HumOr on Darwin
ian Principles.

|
ian Principles.
How are we, on strict Darwinian
| principles, to account for the develop
ment of that kind OF humor which is
unmixed with malice? 1t is hardly
satisfactory to say that the faculty of
seeing the ludicrOus in things adds
to the joy of the community, height
ems its vitality by releasing a surplus
fund of energy, and so indirectly in
creases the active powers of that tribe
or people which has cultivated it, and
the chances of their success in the
struggle for existence. That might
be true as applied to early man. The
pure ludicrous entered, indeed, but
entered rarely and as slight in
gredient into his anxious existence.
There must have been far too little
scope and occasion for it to adj
nit of its adding appreciably
to vital energy. In short, evolu-
tionary theory, in the form IN which
it is commonly set forth by its sci
entific eXponents-that is, as me-
chanical, not a theological system
fails to account for the origin Of nom
malicious humor. 1t cannot point to
any precise end served in its unde-
velOped forms. Recent morphOlOgi-
Cal inquiry has curious bearing on
this point. Biologists have lately been
busy discussing the meaning of
certain organ, to which in the present
stage of its development it APP
pears impossible to assign any utili-
tartan value. The case | allude TO is the
electric organ in the tail OF the skate,
on which Professor Cesar Eva read
a paper before the ROYAL Ocety
Phil. Trans, Vol. LNNIX) Other
aquatic animals which posses such
organs use them to advantage as cleo
trio batteries against their foes. But
the electric organ of the skate, though
a most complicated mechanism,
structure as elaborate as any in the
animal kingdom, appears to be of no
benefit whatever TO its possessOr.
The electricity which it is capa-
bic of generating and discharg-
ing is so slight that it cannot be felt |
by the human hand, and is only au-
dible in the telephone. This imper-
ceptible shock can scarcely be con-
ceived as serving any purpose of de-
fence. Various convincing reasons
are brought to prove that the organ
is not in process degeneration
but in process evolution. |
then, this complex old highly spec
allied mechanism an remain with
1ut functional usstil II the greater is
he difficulty of conceiving how it can
nave aided the survival of the fit
est in the earliest stages of its growth.
It points, it would seem. to some
hing beyond itself from which it de.
ives its meaning; it appears to be
prophetic of the future. If this re-
ult should be scientifically estab-
ished, it would lead to profound
of the current theory of
evolution. If instead of saying chat
must have had a use, or it
'ould not have come into being, sci
nee has to say that everything must
lave had at least a prospective use,
he whole philosophy of evolu-
ion will be altered. Now, evolution
las, as it fancies, satisfactorily &C
for the growth and develop
nent of most of the faculties of the
human mind. But 1T has not been
bile TO explain the sense Of the ludi-
rous, except on the disproved as
umptiOn that it is in all cases malig-
liant in origin. On this subject the
volutiOnists may still have some
hing more TO say. Meanwhile, loOkiI e
} the mental iacts as we find them,
md accepting as provisional hypOth-
isis the scientific conclusions above re-
erred to, we may suggest that the
perception of the pure ludicrOus, or
humOr, in primitive
nan resembles the action OF the i'm
nature electric organ, which is as vet |
# no practical utility to its posses
or, but whose meaning and value
re prospective, and which will some
lay justify its own eXistence.-From
The Evolution of the HumOr," by
Professor :. II. Butcher, l.. l.. D.. in
1arper's Magazine for May.