THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE IN ANIMATED BEINGS. 



419 



THE. CONDITIONS OF LIFE IN ANIMATED BEINGS. 1 



Br EMILE BLAN.CHAED. 



THE conditions of existence to which beings 

 are subject present a prodigious variety, in 

 harmony with the diversity of animal forms. In 

 fact, between the organization of beings and the 

 peculiarities of their abodes, their aptitudes, hab- 

 its, instincts, and intelligence, there are close re- 

 lations which call for deep study, and after study 

 for meditation. We feel that such study is the 

 certain path leading to the true interpretation of 

 most of the phenomena of life, and to sound 

 ideas of the plan of creation. The possibility 

 of dwelling with advantage on such a subject 

 dates but from yesterday, as it were ; it could only 

 come after the great number of scientific inves- 

 tigations that have been followed up to our epoch. 

 It is useful, then, to present a rapid sketch of the 

 phases through which the subject has passed be- 

 fore the views which we desire to explain were 

 brought, out. 



In every country, among primitive races as 

 well as in civilized nations, the most careless atten- 

 tion to the animated world allowed men to recog- 

 nize certain conditions of existence imposed by Na- 

 ture upon the various representatives of creation. 

 While the most striking characteristics, the most 

 singular features of organization, remained unno- 

 ticed by superficial observers, the main aptitudes 

 and the places of abode of the most widely-spread 

 races escaped no one. The earliest men ob- 

 served that there were creatures in some sort 

 attached to the earth, others gifted with the pow- 

 er of moving in air, others again designed for liv- 

 ing in water. Terrestrial, aerial, aquatic animals, 

 these are the only distinctions known without 

 some degree of attentive remark. In looking 

 upon Nature, nothing strikes the human mind 

 more forcibly than the circumstances of life. 



That almost childish thought which forms the 

 notion of important relations between the most 

 dissimilar beings, if there exists some resem- 

 blance in certain faculties and in the abode, is so 

 deeply rooted that it persists even against ideas 

 quite sufficient to compel its surrender. In- 

 stances are numerous. Formerly, in the eyes of 

 all who looked with a sort of superstitious terror 

 at the rapid wheeling flight by night of bats, 

 these creatures, having the power of flying, 

 must be birds. At a time when a great amount 



1 Translated from the Revue des Deiix Morales, by 

 A. R. Macdonough, Jr. 



of scientific knowledge had been already gained, 

 the ignorant were not the only ones to follow 

 that opinion. Bats have a body covered with 

 hair; they have teeth ; they produce their young 

 alive, and suckle them ; in a word, they combine 

 all the essential marks of land-animals usually 

 denoted by the name of quadrupeds. Men ac- 

 quainted with these facts by observation never- 

 theless continue, like the ignorant, to see in bats 

 birds of a singular form, or at least beings that 

 share in the nature of birds and quadrupeds 

 both. In the sixteenth century, Belon, the natu- 

 ralist-traveler, and Scaliger, the famous scholan 

 contented themselves with this sort of judgment. 

 An opinion as ill-founded is much more strongly 

 expressed even now, with regard to dolphins and 

 whales ; the obstinacy with which these inhabi- 

 tants of the deep are regarded as fishes yields 

 most reluctantly to an exact conception of the 

 most characteristic traits in their organization. 

 As there was united with this condition of a 

 common abode for dolphins and fish a consider- 

 able resemblance in their bodily form, the truth 

 was only admitted after long resistance. It was 

 known that dolphins and whales are warm-blood- 

 ed animals, while fish are cold-blooded ; that the 

 former breathe in the air, the latter in the water, 

 and that the former are true mammals, yielding 

 milk ; in spite of all, it was supposed that whales 

 and dolphins, living in the water, could not pos- 

 sibly be anything else than fish. 



If attention dwells at first most readily on 

 conditions of abode, it is afterward caught by 

 striking aptitudes. The construction of the swan 

 and other birds of the same family, so happily 

 adapted to their mode of swimming, has always 

 been admired, even though not studied. With 

 no greater effort of reflection, it was remarked 

 that fishes, in the shape of their bodies and their 

 fins, unite those conditions most favorable for 

 movement in the water. There was no need of 

 investigation to discover that the wings of the 

 insect and the bird are the very instruments that 

 allow these animals to support themselves in the 

 air, and to pass over more or less considerable 

 spaces. In all ages wings have been an object 

 of envy for men — an ideal. Angels exist in im- 

 agination, and these heavenly beings with human 

 forms wear wings. To soar in a few seconds to 

 great heights, to sweep swiftly over vast expanses, 



