The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1919-03-16

70 An8eCJ8 EAoo QS8 lnelE ESoiSts
~. 7as Aids % Eyesight and This
Harlequin Beetle IS One Of
'HS > the Most Interesting Illus
a.. trationS Of This Theory.
- "A LLsEEING science has at last fur
~ nished fun and very interesting
80 \ answer to the puEzling old ques-
!. ton why eats have Whiskers.
,hU Everybody knows, Of course, that the
:, most familiar Of domestic animals is sup
= piled By nature with remarkable growth
.l4eof long, heavy hairs, popularity known as
"whiskers," near the mouth, and a smaller
So growth of smaller hairs over the eyes.
s Science calls them "vIbrissae." The cat
takes great care Of these hairs through
-Ti7out life and they are extremely sensitive
= to the touch. Evidently they serve some
important purpose.
"a. Naturalists have long discussed the pur-
:" pose Of these appendages. The great OAR
win gave publicity to the theory that they
help the cat to feel it's way through the
=. -s;bushes and avoid making noises that
= would alarm it's prey. Many persons think
that they exist in order that the cat may
~ measure whether it can pass through an
: opening before it.
Now science has shown by long series
- Of careful experiments that the 'whiskers"
: really help the cat to fix its eyes upon an
object on which it has to concentrate its
- attention for long time, such as a houses
ID, nose. Without these appendages the OBJ
. ject would disappear occasionally through
fatigue Of the eyes and the eat would lose
its prey.
- This discovery is the work Of Professor
- P F. Swindle, the distinguished expert
s. mental psychologist. and is described by
- him in the American Journal of Psychology.
- Other animals besides the cat have
u whiskers and other appendages for help
- ing their eyes to "fxate" objects. Mans
. eyelashes serve the same purpose to some
'e- extent, and in past ages, when he had to
% catch his food through quick sight he was
- more literally supplied with such aids, in
. Guiding long, shaggy eyebrows.
- The scientist observed certain prelim-
e mary facts. He noted that animals Of the
'ss cat family-including lions and tigers
a. that hunt for their prey and have to fix
&. their gaze rigidly have larger whiskers
than any other animals. He noted that
-. while the watching cat kept very still, its
- whiskers moved continually. He noted
9 that the eat animals, which are nocturnal,
usually have white whiskers, and that
other animals, which are day roamers, such
- as squirrels, usually have dark whiskers
~ or mixed Whiskers.
- He considered the Well-known habits OF
these animals in connection with certain
- laws Of optics, Of which he had made a
- special study. He knew that an object dis
appears temporarily when looked at too
% dxedly, and that it is brought back to clear
- view more quickly If the vision be tenn
- porarily interrupted. These things pointed
strongly to the conclusion that the whis-
kers were appendages to the eyesight en-
= abling the owners to f1xate victims, boughs
OF trees and other objects, and he proved
10 this conclusion by careful experiments.
20 He watched a cat who was a splendid
- mouseT. Then be cut OF the animals
:. Whiskers and found that 1t could catch
- 40 mice Finally he fitted false Whiskers
- to the animal, and it Immediately regained
its mouse-catching abilities. The profess
sor's account Of this experiment is Of abb
sorbing interest.