The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-21
That was the early vertebrate, the

That was the early vertebrate, the
ancestor Of US all
Now if we should have attempted 20
say which would succeed, SHOULD "a!
the molluscs, but some OF you PHEH'
have said that the jointed limbs OF W
crustacea had a better chance pnt
none Of us would have picked out Fae
insignificant worm.
Now let us go on to another age, me
carbonaceous period, with the lsna
covered with huge swamps. 1 think the
first form We should have seen was lie
reptile. There were forms in the sea
that might have been the sea setpents
of that era. There We're animals tint
walked on four legs; there were two
legged reptiles and flying reptiles.
They were powerful, energetic, they
were swift Besides these, there wers
birds flying about in the air, and i IS
probable that they were flying around
with part of the tails of the reptile
We might have found a few small
forms about as large and as dangerous
as rabbits, lodging about among the
rocks.
The skeleton of man shows that he
is made to turn corners. Prllneyal
man had TO be swift then, because a
bird could have knocked him on the
head, or the reptiles would have ma2e
short work of him. Now let US see
which of these forms was most lifted
TO survive. The mollusc never was able
to get on land at all, except as the
snail; the crustaceau developed into
the insect, and now we have to choose
between the reptile, the bird and the
mammal, but no one would have picked
the mammal.
Coming to cenozoic times, the first
thing we should notice would have
been the decrease in reptiles. The birds
did not fulfil the promise of their an
cestors. The descendants of the prim-
Tive mammal have come to the front.
The rodents took to underground life
and made but little progress. Then
there were the herbiverous forms, rep
resented by our horses, cows and sneep.
They were developing speed. This
would show a desire to run away. And
there was something to run away from.
There were the large carnivora, like the
saber-toothed tiger which is now ex-
tinct. You will find in the structure of
the cat that it stands, from an ana
tomical standpoint, at the head of the
animal kingdom.
These were the forms which contest
ed at this period. But if we had looked
about in the branches of the trees We
might have seen animals something
like the ape, or more like the lemur Of
the present day. There were our arbor-
cal ancestors. 1t doesn't look as if ii
would ever come down out of the tree
and fight the carnivora.
The one thing that appears true is
that the race is not to the swift. nor
the battle to the strong. 1t doesn't
seem to be very easy to explain why
this type survived. The shell Of the
mollusc was the dominating factor OF
its existence. The insect form of shell
is easily developed. Now, every grain
of shell an animal developed, made
him more likely to survive. But the de-
velopment of the shell prevented mus
cular action.
The mollusc deserves respect. He
has developed comfort. He has got rid
of all his nerves, but he also got rid of
his brain. The clam sleeps his life
through without a dream, but he
knows he is asleep. The clam, how
eyer, lost all hope of progress.
The bird and carnivore tried other
lines. The carnivore developed good
muscles and fairly good sense organs
and a brain. But beyond certain
limit they could develop no further.
They developed the teeth, and the one
that had the longest teeth could fight
bCllcli Jul tHcS Hudily DeCdlue tOD
long for use. They got a-goin' and
couldn't STOP The law of diminishing
returns hold in the law of nature as
we'll as anywhere else.
The primitive vertebrate did not fol-
low the line of least resistance. He
developed a ridge of cartilage and
then he developed bones on the inside
of the body These are hard tissues to
develop, and they develop slowly. Their
great advantages lay in the future.
The mammal was also developing for
the future. and the mammillary or
gans were what made the family and
the home. The development of the
hand came slowly in our arboreal an
cestor.
which we must differentiate. The first
is along the easy specialization for de-
Tense or offense. The second was most
d:ficult and slow. The first vertebrate
developed our interior skeleton, and
the arboreal type developed the hand.
The primitive vertebrate, the primitive
mammal and the arboreaI type did not
repress the lower organs, but by max
ing them subservient to the higher or
gans. We owe great debt of gratitude
to the primitive mollusc, because he
kept the primitive vertebrate swim
ming; to the carnivore which morally
boosted our ancestor into a tree. whera
the hand was developed. Primitive
man was hedged on three sides ana
compelled to form the habit OF ad
Vabcing. The fittest form was the one
which was developing the highest and
best habits.