Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1929-11-22
WHY WE BEHAVE
LIKE HUMAN BEINGS
BY GEORGE DORSEY. Phi. D. LII. D.

Some People Are Born With
ellis
TXIE NO longer tell friends from
w enemies by smell; but we often
pick them by the shape of their nose.
Ean'S nose Is not so striking as the
elephants, or even the long-nosed
monkeys, but 1t features his face and
Is one of his most human and super
fluous elements. AS 1t is new acqui-
sition, it began with mammals, it ap-
pears late in fetal life and develops
fully only after birth. Its shape and
size are hereditary and are distin-
gushing traits of race. But 1t has
no more to do with brain power than
the handkerchief that wipes it.
AS the olfactory nerves alone are
connected with the hemispheres of the
human brain, it Is inferred that the
brain itself arose in connection with
the sense Of smell; the original brain
was smelling organ.
In mammals generally, the smell
sense is the most highly developed of
all senses. In monkeys, 1t has already
begun to diminish. Some mammals
have five pairs of ridges supporting
the olfactory organs; some hoofed an
imals have eight; apes usually have
three. Man has from two to five
pairs.
The nose in the human embryo is at
first pair of pits or pockets in the
skin-the condition in fishes. The ex-
ternal nose appears much later.
The ear also begins as pocket,
the head until its outer opening Is
closed by the tynpanum or eardrum.
A rare anomaly is an individual with
two, or even three, external ear open
tngs; these represent the second and
third gill-clefts. In some fishes the
opening remains; their ear is pri-
marfly balancing organ. Our equilib-
rum sense organ Is also located In
the inner ear; If our semilunar canals
are destroyed, we cannot balance our
selves.
We turn our head toward sounds
our ancestors turned their ears.
Our eyes are compound and are
made up of the same three parts that
are found in fishes eyes. First,
cluster of skin cells dig in to form
the lens; skin grows over this, be-
comes transparent, and forms the
cornea. Next, growth from the neu-
raj tube reaches out and ends in a
cup around the lens. This cup be-
comes the retina; the stalk which
joins cup with tube, the optic nerve.
Cells from the middle germ layer now
enter the cup and form the transpar-
ent matter of the eyeball. The mid
die layer also supplies skin structure;
it is subject to the horny change of
old age. Hence cataract" of the eye;
the lens has become covered with a
scale.
The Asiatic's eye is not oblique. The
"slit" appearance is due to the low
nasal bridge supporting the upper lid;
the lid thus folds and appears "Mon-
golian." This "oblique" eye is not I'M
common in white children at birth;
when the bridge develops slowly it
may persist for months, even into
adult life.
The tears which wash our eyes
otherwise as dirty as our faces-come
from lachrymal glands in the upper
outer corner of each eye. Some have
additional tear glands at the sides Of
the eyes, as have reptiles.
Our skin Is double structure. The
outside, or epidermis, is ectoderm; the
inside, or dermis, is derived from the
mesoderm. The fetal skin at first is
translucent and not unlike that of
fishes. During the third month, the
epidermis begins to become horny, as
1t is in adult life. 1t is significant
that If we lose third of our skin by
fire, acid, boiling liquid, or faying,
we lose our life.
Color of skin is an inherited trait
and is due to grains of brown or yell
low-red pigment in the dermis Entire
absence Of pigment in skin, hair, and
eyes Is developmental defect and
results in albinos. Albinism is an in
herited trait and is found in many
animals. White blackbirds are as
common as white black men. Pig
ment is probably due to secretion of
an endocrine gland.
To form better grasping surface,
the skin of mans, monkeys, and many
other mammals hands and feet is
thrown into minute ridges, especially
prominent on the finger tips. These
ridges form loops, spirals, and arches.
In no two individuals on esrth do
they make exactly the same pattern.
Hence their unique Importance as
marks of Identification.
At the fourth month, the embryo be-
gins to show a fine silky hair coat or
lanugo (down). This begins to be re-
placed, even before birth, by second
coat Of different character. The
lanugo may persist as "down" on the
face Of girls and women, or even all
over the body, as on the so-called dog.
faced people of the menageries. The
lanugo probably represents our adult
ancestral condition. But no satisfac.
tory theory has yet been advanced to
accoun. for the fact that man is the