The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1897-10-28

chancery. at the United States National
bank today. They come from the Sage
syndicate and the reorganization commit
tee.
It is asserted there will be sharp com
petition between the Sage syndicate and
the reorganization committee.
Eyes are popularity considered to be
quite necessary to sight, but this is
an error, if we are to believe DR.. Nagel, a
recent German experimenter. Many
creatures without eyes can see, at last
they can distinguish perfectly well be-
tween light and darkness, and even be-
tween different degrees Of light. This
is the lowest degree of seeing, to be
sure, but still it is really sight, and diff
fers scarcely more from the visions of
some insects that possess eyes than
this does from our own clear sight
Creatures that see without eyes see
by means of their skins. All skins,
says DR.. Nagel, are potential eyes; that
is, they are sensitive to light. In an
imals that have eyes the sensitiveness
has been highly localized and greatly
inereased-so that man, for instance,
has a retina very sensitive to light.
and an eXpanse of ordinary skin which
possesses n sensitiveness to light so
slight that it is hardly conscious of it.
Yet the sLSa is sensitive in some de-
gree, as is proved by the fact that it
sunburns- that is, light may cause
disturbance in the pigment of the skin
just as it does in that of the eye. In
the eye the disturbance is accompanied
by nervous change which sends a
telegra phic message along the optic
nerve to the brain. In the skin, too,
there are nerves, and there are mes
ages, also, but their tidings imprint
no image on the mind; they simply
express discomfort cry out sun
burn
But in many cyeIess creatures the
lack of eyes IS in part made up by in-
creased sensitiveness of the whole
skin surface to light. Darwin long ago
noticed that the earthworms, although
they have no eyes, will suddenly with
draw into their holes on the approach of
lighted candle. Some creatures seem
more sensitive to suddenly Increased
light others to sudden diminution If
a number OF oysters, kept in vessel
together. are found to be open, they
will shut all at once if u dark object
comes between them and the light.
Another biyalve called Psammodia
has long, wEitish, transparent tubes
which protrude from the sand in which
it lies buried. If they are suddenly il
| Illuminated. they contract, and the
brighter the lightsthe greater the con
traction. If q number of them be car
ried into direct sunlight, they hasten to
bury themselves in the sand; or, if
there is no sand, they move restlessly
to and fro in the water until they are
exhausted.
Ii general, DIR. Nagel finds that
creatures which respond to sudden
shadows are those that live in strong
shells, while those affected by sud
| den increase of light live in sand or
mud, from which they emerge occasion
ally. In both cases the sensitiveness of
the skin to changes of light serves to
protect the animal.
How does the skin acquire this pc
! culiar sersitivcness? It will be best
for the non-cxpert to suspend judg-
ment, since even the scientists do not
1 agree on this point. 1t may be that it
is a universal and rudimentary prop
erty of all skin, and that animals with
eyes have lost it in q greater or less de
gree, because they have no further need
for it. This is ore view. Or it may
be that this property has been devel-
j oped in eyeless creatures just because
they are eyeless and need it. That is
| another view. Those who favor the lat
ter opinion point to the fact that some
of the creatures which now have skins
sensitive to the light are probably de
scendants of creatures with skins MOI
so sensitive; in these instances the
sensitiyenessf must have been recently
developed. Snails are sensitive, but
their relatives, the slugs, are not; this
looks as if the former had acquired the
faculty. However this may be, DR.
NagePs study of these curious and out
! of-the-way facts is certainly interest
ing, and may lead in the future tot an ad
vance in our knowledge of the mechan,
ism of sight.--Boston Journal.
1 A scow load of oak wood just receives