Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1897-09-30

The brains of animals have been
steadily growing ever since the first
living creature appeared on the earth.
II Is known that the mammals of the
tertiary epoch, not more than a million
OF so OF years ago, had brains very
n'lch smaller than the mammals of
To-day Some of the gigantic herbi-
Vores OF that age possessed brains less
in proportion to their size than those
OF the ancient reptiles. Science now
adays is interested in tracing the his
tory of the development of brain in
animals by following the scale of Gre
atlon up from the bottom, dissecting
and comparing. Thus it is learned
that the earliest form of brain must
have been mere nerve cord. In
human being that nerve cord, called
the spinal cord, has lump at one end
of it, termed a brain. The latter is
merely an evolution of the former.
Professor Theodore Gill said to the
writer that among vertebrate animals
the damprey stands almost at the bot
tom in respect to the development of
its brain. Next comes the shark,
which is VIGOROUSLY very stupid fish.
Above the shark in point of mind is
the salamander, and on the next step
is the alligator. To find the step next
above, you must go to Australia where
CIV ellis the strange duck billed ornith-
obynchus, a webfooted animal that
lays eggs. Superior in brain power to
the ornithohynchus is the opossum.
More intelligent than the opossum is
the rat, and more intellectual than the
rat is the hedgehog. Next is the le-
muir, followed by the monkey, whose
only superior is man. This gives a
rough notion of the ascent of the
brain from the bottom to the top of
the kingdom of the vertebrates.
The biggest brain in existence is
that of the elephant, though not in
proportion to the size of the animal.
But the matter of proportion does not
seem to be of absolute importance as
an index to mentality. There is lit
I tie South American monkey, which
though not particularly intelligent,
has brain bigger than mans rel
atively to size. Birds have remark
ably big brains; probably no feathered
species has a larger brain in proper
ton to its size than the chiskadee. The
crow and the sparrow possess brains
bigger than those of most birds, as
might be expected, inasmuch as they
are notably clever. 1t has been ascer-
tanned, by the way, that large men
have more deliberately convoluted
brains than are owned by small men
the only apparent reason being that
there is greater mass Of body to be
moved. The larger the machine, the
more efficient the dynamo required to
run it,
Respecting the nature and develop
ment of brain in animals, surprisingly
little is known. Science today is
studying the subject and trying to get
hold of some definite facts. The intel
Gets of insects are very interesting to
Ihilosophize about but any discussion
of the matter is pure guesswork. Just
little is known about the senses of
insects. There is no question that
they possess the sense of sight, touch,
smell and hearing. In addition to
these, they seem to have other senses
which do not belong to human beings.
The eye If the house fly is enor-
mously more complicated in its struct-
ure than that of a humtn beings, and
it seems probable that the visual i'm
pressions received by that compound
organ are deterrent from ours. In
sects are short-sighted, generally, and
see stationary objects imperfectly, but
they are very sensitive to color. Ants,
for example, are very sensitive to the
ultra violet rays of spectrum, which
we cannot perceive. Presumably, the
aspect of nature to an ant is far differ
ent from what it is to man.
AS for extra senses, it is observed
that many insects have wonderful
sense of direction, particularly bees.
Furthermore, they have the power to
communicate with one another at
distance, and the power seems to cor
respond somewhat to what is called
telepathy among human beings
Washington Post.