The Dawn of Reason; or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals — John Shaqi
The Dawn of Reason; or, Mental Traits in the Lower AnimalsWeir, James, Jr.
Science
The Dawn of Reason; or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals
Weir, James, Jr.
Psychology, Comparative; Reason
Darwin tells us that two snails, one of them an invalid, the other in
perfect health, lived in the garden of one of his friends. Becoming
dissatisfied with their surroundings, the healthy one went in search of
another home. When it had found it, it returned and assisted its sick
comrade to go thither, evincing toward it, throughout the entire
journey, the utmost tenderness and solicitude.[13] The healthy snail
must have used its sight, as well as its other senses, to some purpose,
for, if my memory serves me correctly, we are told that the sick snail
rapidly regained its health amid its new surroundings.
[13] Darwin, _Descent of Man_, pp. 262, 263.
The crayfish also has its eyes at the tips of eyestalks, but the eyes of
this creature are very different, indeed, from the eyes of the snail.
They are what are known as compound eyes, a type common to the crayfish
and lobster families. Viewed from above, the cornea of a crayfish is
seen to be divided into a number of compartments or cells, and looks, in
this respect, very much like a section of honeycomb. The microscope
shows that in each one of these cell-like compartments there is a
transparent cone-shaped body; this is called the crystalline cone. The
apex of this cone is prolonged into an exceedingly small tube, that
enters a striped spindle-like body called the striated spindle; the
entire structure is called a visual rod. Nerve-fibrils emanating from
the optic nerve enter the striated spindle at its lower extremity, and
in this way nervously energize the visual rod. There is a deposit of
pigment about the visual rod which arrests all rays of light save those
which strike the cornea parallel to the long axis of the crystalline
cone. We see from this that the visual picture formed by a crayfish's
eye must be made up of many parts; it is, in fact, a mosaic of hundreds
of little pictured sections, which, when united, form the picture as a
whole. Each visual rod receives its impression from the ray or rays of
light reflected from the object viewed which strike it in the line of
its long axis; the other rays are stopped by the layer of pigment-cells.
When the impressions of all the visual rods are added together, the sum
will be a mosaic of the object, but such a perfect one that the junction
of its many portions will be absolutely imperceptible.
The crayfish can see quite well. It has been thought that this creature
uses its sense of smell more than its sense of sight in the procurement
of its food. This is undoubtedly true where the animal is surrounded by
water that is muddy, or that is otherwise rendered opaque. The
odoriferous particles coming from the food being carried to the creature
by the water, it follows them until it arrives at this source.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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