The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-01
DARw1N1sM AND SWIMMING.
Why is It That Every OF her Animal
Except Man Can Swim Naturally
From the New York Time

From the New York Times.
Man is almost the only animal that has
no instructive knowledge Of swimming,
which is remarkable, considering the vast
period of time throughout which this &C
complishment has been nearly essentla
to him. There is every evidence that man
has almost always lived in proximity to
water. Among the fiuvial drift are found
the ancient stone implements, and where
relics of human handiwork are discovered
along with the remains of extinct
animals, 1t is almost always in riverside
caverns. Men have, therefore, always
been swimmers, just as all savaRes are at
the present day. And yet, notwithstand-
ing this long experience, mankind has not
acquired an instructive, an hereditary
knowledge of swimming. That ingenious
writer, DR.. Louis Robinson, makes this
fact the subject Of a paper in the Nine
teenth Century.
He considers that the inability of man
to swim instinctiyely is proof of his de-
scent from apes. DIR. Robinson thus ex-
plains the ability of animals TO swim as
soon as they are thrown into the water.
A dog or a horse is able to swim, not be-
cause he has an intutive knowledge of the
art of swimming, but because it 80 hap
pens that his usual terrestrial method Of
locomotion, when kept up in the water,
will keep him aiioat. 10 is natural for an
animal, when under strong state of ex-
element, to employ its usual methods of
locomotion. For instance, If we pick up
rabbit, and 1T is frightened, it will imme-
diately begin to work its legs as In the act
of running. Or if we hold a bird in our
hand it will flap its wings as in the act OF
flying. Now an animal, when IL finds
itself in the water for the first time, is no
doubt in an excited state OF mind, and IL
Immediately begins to employ its ordinary
method Of locomotion. 1t so happens that
these are of the kind to keep it ahoat, and
the animal thus has at once the accom-
plishment Of swimming, This seems a
more plausible explanation of the swim
ming of animals than that the animal, so
soon as he finds himself in the water,
should reflect, I" Go to, shall now swiGnp
Animals, like the cat and donkey, which
have decided antipathy to water, never
theless swim as soon as they find them
selves in that element
A man, too, when he finds himself in
the water without knowledge of swim
ming, Immediately begins to put forth his
natural method Of locomotion. But IL so
happens that that method Is not of the
kind to keep him afoat. He reverts to
the arboreal habits Of his ancestors, the
apes. He proceeds TO climb This he
does, both with his arms and legs. He
head is immersed. He grasps at a float
ing twig with the instinct Of his arboreal
ancestor, when he was running upward
frightened by the apparition Of q snake
on the ground. OF course, any man
knows that he ought to keep his hands
down when IN the water,
but ninety-nine men out of
100 who have not learned TO swim will,
when they find themselves in the water,
do precisely the opposite Of this. In spite
Of their knowledge that such an action is
fatal they revert, as DIR. Robinson would
have us believe, TO the instinct of their
arboreal ancestors There was indeed
time when mems ancestors were duadru-
peds, and ran away from an enemy on the
ground on all foUrs, but that was long
ago, as long as the close of the secondary
epoch. Since then has intervened the
vast period Of his arboreal existence,
which anatomy and geology show in the
opinion of men of science to have been
much longer than his existence as biped.
But the question at once occurs: Are
apes and monkeys unable to swiml Upon
this point DIR. Robinson does not appear
to have very exhaustive information.
Balloons can swim, but balloons have a
quadrupedal mode Of progression, even
when climbing tree. A mans gait in
mounting ladder is said TO be much
more like that of a true arboreal animal
than the gait Of baboon. Alfred Russell
Wallace says that South American mon
keys seldom or never cross streams, riv-
ers being the boundary lines between al
lied species DR.. Robinson claims that
there is strong presumption that the
more bulky ones, like the gorilla aud the
orang-outang, are as helpless in the water
as a man. II Is an interesting question,
and one which could, we should suppose,
be very easily decided by experiment.