The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-20

| 80 "ift9 lo ~ the eggs OF the slave
ants TO cause them to produce such docile
servants. Do they inocuiate them in some
way, or u Il case of early training over
coming The impulses of instinct?
| Testing an Ants Reason.
Ants will be brought from every part of
| the world and studied under the influence
OF changes Of temperature Not only will
| they be studied as they are but they viii
| De suddenly or gradually confronted with
| changed conditions so as to find whether
their instinct or incipient reason viii be
strong enough TO cause them TO change
| their habits to conform to their changed
manner Of life This process of enforced
| development will be used on various ami
! mails, birds and insects to see if the slow
| processes of evolution can be fastened by
| artitcial means. Ants proverbially are wis
! er for their size than any living creature,
| SO that this process of forcing the intel
iectuai powers of animals will have with
| them vivid application. Even white ants
l will he induced 10 colonize in the insu-
7 tuition. These curious creatures build hous-
| es so high and strong (some of them are
| twenty feet high that the sentinel buffalo
| OF Africa use them as observation points
on which to stand while they guard the
destinies of the feeding herds. The army
/ ant of Central America will also be stud
! led, although strenuous precautions viii
| for these little creatures travelling in mill
| lions have been known to pass through
| town and simply consume every eatable
| thing in it on the way. An army of ants
! let loose in Philadelphia would do great
| damage. The white ant would be formid-
| able from the fact that it eats wood 1t
| could Undermine the wooden portions of
| houses, keeping inside the beams, and it's
| presence would never be known until per-
hans ba inb ab
To Learn About the Death Head
Beetle.
That curious little wood consuming in
| sect known as the death head beetle, which
is dreaded by the supersutious because ii
| is supposed to be the fore-runner of the
angel of death, win be studied and per-
,haps some very curious condolences an
| vestigat led. The seventeen-year locust will
| be studied with view to finding out why
! it should put in a multiplied appearance
| only during certain years and after regu-
lar intervals. The markings on the wings
! of the butterflies, together with the rela-
! tons these markings bear TO the coloring
| Of caterpillars from which the butterflies
| came win also be studied. The influence of
! temperature on butterflies viii be tested
| in especially heated rooms. 1t may prove
! something in regard to geographical dis
| tribution. On the north side of the Alps
| there exists a butterfly similar in all ways
to one which flies about the southern slopes
of the mountains except in the coloring
of the wings. The northern insect as never
i seen on the southern side; the southern is
| never seen on the northern side. Now are
the insects different or are they the same
| species with colors changed by the temper
| ature?
How u Spider Spins.
There will be a spider room in the in
| stitution where the home and field life of
Arachne can be studied intimately. Hence
forth we may expect to learn the whole
| process of web making and of fly CATCH
ing as it is pursued in spiderdom.
Mystery of Giants and Dwarfs
Among Fish.
Determined efforts viii be made to find
out some of the mysteries of fish exist
ence.. The breeding habits are not entirely
known. Take one peculiar fact concerning
the black bass, which is well known to
anglers Fishermen have observed that
there seem always to be two varieties of
fish in pool-the large sized and small
sized. Now these giants and dwarfs all
come from the same lot Of eggs. Half of
the embryos from one Matching grow large;
the other half remain stunted. There are
no intermediate sizes and the phenomenon
is not caused by some of the fish eating
Others since the smaller ones are there;
nor can ii be because of a more favorable
| location for part of the egg-mass-the
sizes of the fish would be graduated if that
were the fact. The line of demarcation is
not only very distinct but it is very broad
No one al least has been able to find out
the reason for this curious occurrence. 1t
will be studied and may be solved in the
University of Pennsylvania.
In addition to an examination of the
eggs, the fish will be successfully Isolated
and congregated, examined internally and
externally for parasites which might sap
their vitality, and rate of growth each
day or week will be determined accurate
ly. The prediction of certain fish forms
for light or darkness will be noted and
they will be scrudnized carefully and put
through various tests to determine If DOS
sible what ii is that causes this eagerness
for light or shade. The reason may be
a chemical one, or ii may be part of the
animals food getting propensit,es, or it
maybe part of that protective principle
which helps many an animal to avoid its
enemies, or there may be something cleo
trio about 1t. Scientists know an animal
which is to be attracted towards the Eight
to be, as they say, heliotropic. One which
insists on going downward or earthward
in the water as geotropic. One which is
attracted towards chemicals as chemitro-
pic. One which is mighty influenced by
neighboring electric currents as has been
supposed of some, of the food of the ray
fish. is said to be electropic. Chemitrop,sm
evidently has to do. largely with what
otherwise might be taken for a sense of
taste or smell in some of the lower fish
forms. Dr. Parker of Harvard decided the
final cause of the phenomenon of taste
might depend on some one elementary sub
stance contained in the thing tasted. He
first observed that the under surface of
sea anemone was covered with little
hairs or ella which had the power of
pushing towards the central pouch or of
rejecting entirely any substance which
came in contact with them. For instance,
a piece of crabs meat placed against the
ella Of the anemone was at once pushed
over into the center of the animal, and,
for want of a better word, was swallowed.
A piece of paper or a grain of sand was
rejected Immediately and pushed away
from the animal. DR.. Parker experiment
ad 70 End that DOtastium chlorate was the