The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-24
gh aa1ieha daily Eaoe saturday Wurnno auems "a 1895

to get measured for spectacles-and the
practice is becoming so common as to
fail to excite remark or curiosity-it is
impossible for the Thoughtful Patriot
TO refrain from disluieting conjecture
as to the visual Developments and lin.
itations OF the coming man. It's all
very well to accept the inevitable de-
duction from obvious facts that the
coming man. and likewise the coming
woman, will be bald and toothless,
but if the coming man is going TO be
blind what sort of place is the coming
world going to be?
There is, of course, no reason in the
philosophy of development why the
teeth and hair. When our grand
fathers and grandmothers had not
passed beyond the simian stage Of
Development and the gentle arts OF
tailoring and dreSsmaking were as vet
undiscovered. il was essential that
Dame Nature should supplement the
deficiencies of science by supplying
the undeveloped human with cover
ing that should supply the place of the
uninvented tennis shirt and pillow
sleeves. Therefore we We're a hairy
crowd in those days. But when the
monkey began TO rise into the dignity
of man and put on coat and trous-
ers he began to shed his hair. trans
formation the records Of which exist
in the earliest myths of the race as
well as in such authentic records as
that which tells that the rude, semi
barbarOus Esau was hairy man.
while his subtle and civilized brother
Jacob the progenitor of the highest
existing grade OF civilization-waS
smOoth-skinned- There is really no
stronger philoscphic reason for the sur
viyal of hair on the head and face than
on the rest of the body, and thus we
find. in the increasing ratio of bald
ness, that the principle Of evolution is
getting in its fine work. 1t is so also
with regard to the teeth. The grand
sires of Adam had no need for a den
tist. and he would starve TO death
among the strong-teethed savages of
Central Africa. Where civilization
reaches its highest point of develop
ment the dentist fOurishes and buys
steam yachts, not because the civilized
man treats his teeth worse than the
savage does, but because nature is
trying hard to get rid Of what she re-
CARDS as a useless survival Of the
primal type.
1t is different with the eyes. 1t is
not difficult to imagine type of civil
izatiOn that may esteem badness and
toothlessness as the highest point Of
beauty and that will regard hair and
teeth as the modern American regards
the vermiform appendicitis myster-
ious form of possible danger and some
thing to be got rid of at al hazards
by a surgical operation. But If the
coming man is to be blind as well as
bald and tOothlesS, what is to become
Of him? How will he be able to go
in swimming or to read the seaside
gossip in the Sunday papers? He will
be of no use to himself or to anybody
else unless he can so cultivate the in
telligence Of the humber animals as to
train his dogs to lead him abroad and
his cats to read to him.
There is something unnatural and in
consistent with the true principles of
evolution in the growing tendency to
weak eyes. in the constantly increasing
disposition to correct visual defects by
mechanical agencies. 1t can't be re-
conciIed with the theories of modern
philosophy. There is no reason for 1T.
The Brooklyn Times thinks perhaps
in the fact that the man with only one
good eye generally finds it good enough
to last lifetime without invoking the
aid of the oculist, there may be some
hint of the end which poor, slow,
stumbling nature is striving to attain.
1t may be that the burden Of looking
after two eyes where one is enough
for all practical purposes is revolving
to the evolutionary tendency and that
the vision of the coming man will be
concentrated in a single eye. capable
Of attending to its own business with
out the aid Of the scientific expert.