Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-09-05
roRooTrEN iNsrIhcrs.
Sounds, sights and Coiors Known TO AMI
mails and Not 70 Man.

mails and Not TO Man.
IL the doctrine be true that man Is
really the heir OF all the various species
and genera OF the animal kingdom IL
seems o little hard upon us that,
even by way OF exception, we inherit
none of the more marvellous instincts OF
those species and genera and have to be
content with those greater but purely
human faculties by which the most /
wonderful of animal instincts have been |
extinguished. Sir John Lubbock main
tains there are insects, and very likely |
even higher animals, which perceive
colors of which we have no glimpses
and hear sounds which to US are inaudi-
BILE. Yet we never hear of 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 a human
ear which is entranced with music that
to the great majority Of our species 10
absolutely inaudible.
Again, we never hear OF human
being who could perform the feat OF
which we were told only recently Of
bloodhound In dark night 1t fol-
lowed up for three miles the trail OF
thief with whom the bloodhound could
never have been in contact (he had just
purloined some rolls of tan from the
| lanyard 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 the
track OF the scent, which SO many of the
| lower animals possess, entirely extin-
| guished in man, If man be the real heir
OF all the various genera which show
powers inferior to his own!
We see no trace in animals of that
high enjoyment of the finer scents
which make the poisoning Of the
spring flowers so great delight to hui
man 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. 1t
is the same with the power of dog or
cat to find its way back to home to
which it is attached. but from which 1t
has been taken by route that it can
not possibly follow on its return, even
If it had the power OF observing the
route, which usually it has not. Moth
ing could be more convenient than such
a power to lost child. But none ever
heard Of child who possessed it.
Still more enviable is that instinct
possessed by so many birds of crossing
great tracts of land and sea without ap
parently any landmarks or sea-marks tx
guide them, and of reaching quarter
of the globe which many of them have
never visited before. while those who
have visited it before have not visited il
often enough to learn the way
The migratory bird must posses.
either senses or instincts entirely be
yond the range of human Imagination
and yet no one ever heard of the sur
vival of such a sense or instinct il
any member of our race. l
may be said, indeed, that mel
have either inherited or in SOM
way reproduced the slave-makinI
instinct of some of the militar
, ants; but this only enhances the iron
of our destiny if we do, indeed, in an
sense inherit from these insect aristoc
racies one of the most disastrous in
stincts of the audacious but indolen
{ creatures which fight 50 much bette
than they work. What is still NOR
l curious is that even where human BIZ
: ings have wholly exceptional and vi
heard-of powers they betray no trace
: of the exceptional and unheard-e
y powers of the races whose vital organ
:. izations we are said to inherit.
3 The occasional appearance of yer
g rare mathematical powers, for instance
: so far from being in any sense expli
II able from below, looks more like il
a spiration from above. The calculatin
l. boy, who could not even give any a
L count of the process whereby he arrive
Is at correct results which the educate
q mathematician took some time
y verify, certainly was not revi
< ing in himself any Of the ral
y power of the lower tribes
At animals. Nor do the prodigies in mus
s. who show such marvellous power in i
) fancy recall to us any instinct of Il
ID bird, the only musical creature exec
lie ourselves. Still less, of course, do
n great moral genius-the genius of
I'd Howard or Clarkson-suggest al
Mt reminiscence of lower animal life.
American ANALYST