The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1909-07-24
MOTHER NATURE TAKES OATH.


One OF the most interesting suits trial in the General
Court of Scientific Research is the one that has been
waged over the principle of heredity.
Mother Nature has been called, sworn examined cross
examined excused and recalled and she has proven the
most battling of witnesses.
For example, take her testimony in the matter of certain
wasps She called by the attorneys for the theory of
heredity and on direct examination she testified as fol
lows
Eyes, your honor have made species of wasp called
the which sees its father or it's mother and
which never lives to its children and yet it exhibits
most complex scheme of life which varies by lot
This wasp-l speak of the female-as soon as she
reaches maturity, makes haste to build paper capsule
She then hunts far and wide for spiders She doesn want
any kind OF spider but just one rather uncommon.
species Having found of these, she carefully stngs
him in center, injecting some of the venom from
her poison Now she has studied natural history
but she picks out the wrong kind of SPIDER she
has never been to medical college but surgeon could be
SO exact as to the spot to insert the sting and the depth
to which to drive it.
"Her poison would kill any other spider The poison in
any other part OF this particular spider would kill it. But
the Job properly done simply para without killing the
spider and the wasp then carries the helpless prey to the
paper capsule and deposits it therein This process is re-
peaed an exact number of times until exact number of
helpless spiders IN the paper prison Then and then
only the mother lays certain number of eggs in the
capsule and seals up the end Her work being DONE she
dies.
After time the eggs hatch out and the baby wasps
find at hand store of fresh meat They attack the living
but parayzed spiders at time and them up There
just enough of this food to sustain young wasps I'M
til they enough to break down the wall of their
paper nursery and they at begin repetition of the
elaborate process which brought them into life
never see their mother and they never live to see
their children They fail to hunt spiders and they
never hunt the wrong kind They catch too few nor
too many and they sting hairs breadth out of the
way They never lay their until the right number of
spiders have been stored up They meat wasps
after they break out of their paper CRADLE
AND you say" asks the bespecaced scientist at the
trial table, eveng his microscope at the Witness that
these wasps their mother father cannot
learn from them nor do they live to their children
they can t tell them the secret?''
Exactly so,'' said Mother Nature
Then - exclaims the attorney for Heredy, eve have
proved our Here evidently is proof positive of in
herlted intelligence, or at least instinct
Up jumps the enstattoney the other side of the
table wait a minute,' he cries. II want to cross
examine the Witness
Mother Nature settles back in her chair and smiling
cheerfully mods for him to go ahead
Now, madam, whom do consider the best organized
OF all your children-except, perhaps modestly) man
kindi''
THE bee, - is the prompt reply.
t'Why!"
because the bees live in perfectly governed commun
ity When they overcrowd place they do not fight but
part of them migrate orderly way Because thev do
their work IN series of specialized divisions of labor Be-
cause they waste time labor in useless effort Be
they plan unerrngy of plenty for the win
ter of want which they know is Because they are
the most peaceabe contented and Industrious of my chill
dren.'
Was there honey making bee whose father ever
made bit of comb or brought in drop of honey?"
NO. the father is drone; he never did and never
do a tap of work.
Was there ever mother bee who did a stroke of
work.
"No, never queen bees do not work.
$50, then the complex social, political and industrial
life of the bee is not inherited from either father or
mother?''
tThat must be true" replies Mother Nature and while
the attorneys broke into terrible wrange she slipped out
Of court.