New-York tribune., 1918-01-16
Man and His Machines

DO you remember when automobiles
loo'ed like carriages, very awkward car
riages, drawn by something invisible out
IN front under tin box? That was in
the earliest days Of the game. "Horse-
less vehicles" they were called. Now it
is the horsc-drawn vehicle that looks
peculiar, and our motor cars have under
gone the expected evolution. They have
ceased to look like carriages. They have
ceased even to look like boats, which marked
one transition period. They are designed
to-day, as the recent show dis-'avel. to
look like automobiles and nothing else.
The body is built to conform with the
tacts or the thlng-not of something out
IN front pulling, but of self-contained,
self-drlving unit, every line from radiator
to tlre-carrler combining in one moving
organism.
Are there many such cases of inherited
clumsiness in machines? Yes, if we can
believe that cheerful philosopher, our
great Samuel Butler, Who was very fond
OF comparing man with his machines and
tracing the parallel between their evo]u-
ne called them. And he was confident
that they were quite as striking as the
external ear, the appendix and similar
rudiments in man. He wrote in 1853 in
letter to "The Press" of Chrstchurch
New Zealand
Could we give any example Of such or
gans? We pointed to the little protuber
NJ fbo
tobacco pipe. This organ was originally de-
signed tor the same purpose as the rim at
the bottom OF a tea-cup, which is but an
o'her form OF the same function Its pur-
pose was to keep the heat of the pipe from
marhlng the table on which it rested Orici-
many, as we nave seen in very early tobacco
plpes, this protuberance was of a very diff
ferent shape to what it is now 1t was
broad at the bottom and fiat, so that. while
the pipe was being smoked, the bowl might
rest upon the table. Use and disuse have
mere come into play and served to reduce
inc luncton to Its present rudimentary con-
dltlon. That these rudimentary organs are
rarer IN machinery than in animal life is
owing to the more prompt action of the
human selection, as compared with the
slower but even surcr operation of natural
selection. Man may make mistakes; in the
long run Nature never does So We have
only given an imperfect example. but the
intelligent reader will supply himself with
illustrations.
The cheerfuness with which Butler
shifted the labor to his readers suggests
an unworthy doubt that examples of
atrophled organs in machines were NOT
easy to find. The buttons on the sleeve
OF mans coat are the first illustration
that comes to mind, and that is hardly q
1air one, for surely some stupid notion
OF aesthetics has finger there. If Ian
guage can be considered man-made ma
chlne-and 1t is certainly one of the most
wonderful Of all our machines if it. can
be so regarded-those superfuous letters
which drive the simple spoilers to furv
might be considered rudimentary organs
Inc "gh' IN mighty" for example. Per-
haps our Intelligent rcaders' can bo1n
with other cases
Our suspicion is that while such rudi-
ments DO constantly carry over from one
invention to another they are very soon
utterly removed, as in the case of the
automobile. Man may not be as intelli.
gent as Nature, but he at least has moro
control over his medium. He can ra
mould his automobile completely between
seasons, whereas Nature REQUIRES good
ness knows how many thousand wears to
get rid of an appendix-and then ,o.vos
the job in mess!