The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1928-03-15
Mysteries Of Life
ExpOunded By
Philosopher
By George A. Dorsey,
Phi. D., LII. D.
CHAPTER IS


The stork leaves the baby and
flies away home. The baby
knows how to live; all 1t has to
do now Ii to learn to behave. IT
can learn many things; it will be
expected to learn certain things.
It Is fitted for life; It will be
trained to fit into this or that
kind Of life. It has an inherit.
ance; it win be asked to invest
this inheritance in the coin OF the
realm. It's potentiaIities are I'M
known; they viii now be tested
and given rein to develop or
checked by the bit of CUSTOM
IN short, every baby is born at
specific time into 9. specific
community with definite ways OF
living and set opinions Of those
who do not live that way; TO that
life the baby is expected to learn
to adjust itself-or as It is some
times put, to become an orna-
ment!
How does it. do it?
How does the stork know It's
way horne? We do not know. we
know how to find our way home
and what happens when We ar
rive home and cannot find the
kevhple. or when we promise 70
Be home at and arrive at =
Even ! bee knows its way home
and makes for it in a pee
line. Marked terms carried Dy
Watson in q hooded cage on g
steamer from their nesting
grounds OFF the coast OF Florida
to Galveston, returned home IN
less than a week across the OVv.
mils trackless waters Of the Gun
Of Mexico.
cannot describe tern behavior IN
the familiar terms of human psy-
chology. We only know that with
this homing instinct birds get
home; we do not yet know the
nature OF the stimulus, whether
one or many, or how this stlmu-
ms 50 excites the bird that y
makes its uncanny" response.
nut this we can say, any bird
born with reaction mechanism
that Is not responsive to iife-or-
death excitations will never grow
m r. Be proud OF its offspring.
An eel travels down the Rhine
IN the sea. and keeps right on
until she reaches the Azores; lays
her eggs: dies. Her progeny re-
firm TO- the Rhine. Salmon are
- auncanny'':: from the sea they
enter fresh-water rivers and
ascend far inland; deposit their
eggs: die. They are in such
hurry to make this journey to
the grave that they do not stop
on the way TO eat. Young sal.
mon return to the prfny deep to
grow m. and find their way
back up the very same river TO
nav their debt to their kind and
to their nature.
During evolution, life has en-.
eountered endless situations and
has learned-sometimes only in
differently well--fo meet these
situations In endless ways. Some
of these ways are still miles be-
yond us-as Huxley remarked Of
his crayfish after studying it all
his life. We see the responses
and too often interpret them in
terms Of our own likes and dis,
likes, pains and pleasures, work
and play.
we think we know why we
travel q thousand miles to die in
the old home, and how we find
1t. But why should . poor fish If
salmon 90 hungry for weeks,
travel q thousand miles, breast
endless rapids and climb water
falls. just to polish off life in The
old home? It seems stupid. 1t
Is; 1t las nearly been the death
OF salmon. Think of all the sal
mon ever canned-aIl because
they insist on going home to die!
We do not know what empels
salmon to climb to lakes in
mountains, cells to cross seas,
birds to migrate halfway round
the world, amebae to chase their
brothers, or men to beat their
wives. We do not even know
much about impulses. We do
know that some things, some
situations, and some people, ex.
cite us-sometime more than
we are willing to admit or is
AOvERTIsEMEMT
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