January, 1938 



EVOLUTION 



Page Nine 



In Praise of Natural History 



By WILLIAM KING GREGORY 



I 



OH, LET us give praise unto Natural History; 

 for she hath revealed the splendor of the heavens, 

 the majesty of celestial power. 

 Her fields are Space and the Universe of Light: 

 her dominion stretcheth from everlasting unto everlasting. 

 The stirrings of the atom are her province: she dwelleth 

 among all things visible and invisible. 

 The motes dance and the stars of Orion move in harmony ; 

 So shall their music delight her soul. 



II 



She conjureth the uttermost past: behold the sun travaileth 

 in labor and sorrow ; but at last the earth, the moon and 

 the eleven stars spring forth from its side. 

 When she holdeth up her mirror to man the planets move 



in their turn; 

 the moon followeth its appointed round, the 

 morning star foretelleth the rising of the sun. 

 The earth trembleth and the waters thereof are troubled: 

 the winds blow and the foundations of the great deep are 



broken up. 

 Again the sea is calm: its sands drop down in 

 quiet pools; living things come forth on to the land. 



Ill 



The chronicles of the ages are hers ; the generations of 

 living things are numbered in her book ; the records of 

 their origins are graven upon her tablets. 



She knoweth how soon they end in labor and sorrow ; 



they go down finally into the grave. 



She interpreteth the writings of the ancients: the wisdom ot 



old is hers, and of the tuture she prophesieth. 



By her the living are measured and the dead appraised: 



Yea, ttiey that have gone before live in her memorials ; 



for her labors endure from generation to generation. 



IV 



All the living creatures of the earth are sought by her: 

 she hath given them names and made known their place 



in the world. 

 To her nothing that is alive is of no value ; the labors 

 of the ant are instructive, and the way of the bee worthy 

 of remark. 



She sheweth the antiquity of our descent: nevertheless our 

 forebears were akin to foolish apes, and their 

 forebears the smallest of the beasts of the field. 



Yet are we not utterly without hope: for she hath declared 



unto us a way of salvation. 



She hath shewn us the reason for the sinfulness of man. 



The origin of his perversity she hath made plain. 



We may perchance correct our faults through her instruction, 



and her teachings lead to humility and understanding. 



So let us give praise unto Natural History ; 



for nothing on earth is too humble for her to study 



and the splendor of the heavens is open before her. 



Animals of Land and Sea 



By PAULINE H. DEDERER 

 Professor of Zoology, Connecticut College 



IF YOU have ever on a summer's vacation had the pleas- 

 ure of exploring some rocky pine-girt island along our 

 New England coast, you have probably seen, when the tide 

 receded, many pools left among the rocks, forming natural 

 and beautiful aquaria. In such tide-pools as these you 

 may find in abundance starfishes of various sorts, their 

 cousins the sea urchins encased in round spine-covered 

 shells, tiny snails tightly fastened to the rocks (relatives ot 

 the Mediterranean forms whose bodies, when crushed, yield 

 the Tyrian purple dye), sea anemones as big as apples, 

 colored red, brown or orange, and thousands of barnacles, 

 each animal secure within its white tent-like shell. 



You will also probably find what you may imagine to 

 be various kinds of seaweeds, which would prove to be 

 beautiful sorts of animal communities termed hydroids, 

 in which each individual, like a many-petaled flower, arises 

 gracefully from a tiny transparent vase. If, however, a 

 small lobster-like animal should dart that way, the waving 

 tentacles would grasp and paralyze it, and finally pull it 

 down into a central mouth, suddenly become capacious. 

 The flower-like organism is plainly an animal, since it has 

 the ability to feel, to move, and to digest food. The sea- 

 weeds, on the other hand, which they resemble so closely, 

 show no sign of feeling, do not move voluntarily and are 

 nourished by inorganic substances which they absorb from 

 the wi»ter. 



There are certain characteristics of living things, whether 

 plants or animals, which mark them off sharply from their 

 inorganic surroundings, the water, rocks or sand. These 

 are: a peculiar chemical constitution, definiteness of organ- 

 ization, the power to repair themselves as their tissues wear 



Cmrlexv American Museum of Natural HMory 

 A "Basket" Starfish 



