The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-15
THE INTELLECT or INSECTS.
The Smithsonian Institution Is Cola
IectinS Data on the Subject.

| this summer, be sure to preserve their
brains the Smithsonian Institution wants
| them.
Absurd notion, you say? Not bit Of it,
! A mosquito has a brain just as much as
you have There is a specimen in the
national museum-that is to say. a model
of Jersey mosquitoes thinking machine,
magnihed about ten thousand times.
| Eventually the models of a fy's brain.
! cockroach's brain. an ants brain, a bed
bugs brain, ETC.. will be added to the col
| lection.
! The collection referred to has been newly
acquired by the Smithsonian Institution
| for the national museum 1t is an as
| semblage of models of brains of all sorts
| of animals. Many Of them are greatly
| magnihed, so as to afford opportunity for
| comparative study. For just at present
| an immense amount of interest is being
! manifested in the study of mind and the
| phenomena exhibited by the mind appa>
| ratus. Not only are men e-distinction
! contributing their brains to science-Prof.
! Cope the great paleontologist who died
| the other day, actually throwing in his
! skeleton-but demands are being made for
the brains of creatures low down in the
| scale OF mental development, for pur-
| poses of investigation.
| 1t is only within a comparatively short
| time that the existence of an organ prop
! erly termed a brain in the lowest orders
| of animals has been recognized. OF course
| very far down in the scale of creation one
| finds hardly more than a system of nerves
| and Sanglia, with nothing specially rec
| ognizable as representing brain. But
| even clam may be said to have a sort
| OF brain, though 1t is extremely small; It
| can be dssected and properly identified
as the thinking center or principal gang
! lion of the creature. This principal nerve
| bunch or ganglion has direct control over
| the sO-called foot of the clam When
| II comes to the higher mollusks, such as
| the squid, nautilus, argonaut, and other
| cephalopods it is found that they pos
sess quite large and well-deveoped brains
| Obviously, it would be quite unfair to
| classify mollusks, Intellectually speaking.
with insects, which are, many of them,
| extremely intelligent animals Their
| brains, though so minute, are capable of
| mighty good thinking, and afford the best
| possible illustration of the fact that quail
| ity rather than size makes a high-grade
mind machine. The ant is famous for its
| cleverness, and so, likewise, is the bee.
| There are very few smarter creatures
| than the everyday housefy which, while
| establishing itself as a paradise on man,
| knows enough from the start TO regard
| him as an enemy implacably hostile En-
| tomologists say that the cockroach is a
| wonderfully brainy animal, and an equal
tribute is paid to the bedbug.
The nervous system of the fly is a nerve
cord with series of ganglia strung
| along 1t, extending the whole length of
the body WThs cord corresponds to the
| spinal cord in a human being or other
| vertebrate animal The biggest of the
| ganglia, which is considered as the brain
| proper, is situated in the upper part of
tho head, and by means OF nerve fla
| mentS controls the eyes, mouth and an
| tennae. The legs, wings and other parts
of the body are connected directly with
the other ganglia. 1t is pretty much the
| same way Eith a mosquito Perhaps some
| persons will assert chat a mosquito does
not possess a high degree of cunning; If
| 80, il must certainly be that the persons
| m question have had small experience
! with the insect. Oh no, the time has ar
! rived when IL must be admitted that the
| lower creatures generally have minds OF
| Their own, and that they do their think
| ing more or less as we do. Even bugs
| have brains and know how TO use them
| Fishes are comparatively stupid animals,
! but they have brains, too The national
| museums collection includes quite a num-
| Der of models of them. II is noticeable that
| the so-calied optic lobes" which com
! prise the thought apparatus Immediately
| connected with vision are enormously de-
| veloped. This is because a fish depends
| upon the sense Of sight for getting food
! while not requiring much intelligence I'm
| general way for the transaction of its bus
! mess in life The brains Of fish are small
and smooth-lacking convolutions. How
! ever, the notion that complex convolutons
| necessarily indicate high mental power was
| exploded some time ago. The brain Of
| whale is more deliberately convoluted than
that for a man, and the same is true of
! the porpose and the elephant.
Poor Mr.. Frog, who is always getting
| chopped up for scientific purposes, is found
/ to have a very inferior sort of BRAIN His
| only talent is for bug-huntng, inasmuch
| as he feeds on insects almost exclusively.
| There does not seem 20 be much difference
! between his think machine and that Of "A
| salamander.
! As might be expected, the brains of tur-
| ties and snakes are unimpressive. The
| snakes OF to-day, as Prof Cope once said
| 10 writer, are poor and diminutive sur
| vivals from ancient epochs when it was
worth while TO be a reptile But, rs Is prov
| ed by discovered fossils the gigantic rep
| tiles Of long ago had exceedingly small
brains In proportion TO their size. Probably
an Atantosaur lizard ninety feet long pos
sessed a brain no bigger than that Of a
modern cat These facts are ascertaincd
that by examining the cavities of the fos-
sill skulls. A tweve-foot alligator of to-day
! has a brain only about the size Of ones
thumb.
The brains Of animals have been steadily
growing ever since the first living crea-
l
that the mammals Of the tertiary epoch,
not more than a million or 50 Of years
ago, had brains very much smaller than
the mammals Of to-day Some Of the gi-
gantic herbivores Of that age possessed
brains less in proportion TO their size
than those Of the ancient reptiles. Sci
ence nowadays Is interested In tracing
the history OF the development Of brain
in animals by following the scale Of crea-
ton up from the bottom, dissocting and
comparing. Thus Il Is learned that the
earliest form OF brain must have been "A
mere nerve-cord. In human being that
nerve-cord. called the spinal cord has n
lump at one end OF Il termed a brain The
latter Is merely an evolution OF the for
mer
Prof Theodore GIN said 20 the writer
that among vertebrate animals the lamp
rey stands almost at fhe very bottom In
respect TO the development OF is brain
Next comes the shark, which n notorious
~ % very stupid nah. Above the shark in
point OF mind ~ the salamander, and on
A. ALI ~