154 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



out, his skin will digest, and his interior membrane 

 will respire ; he will apparently suffer no discom 

 posure from this reversed state of affairs. 1 Again, 

 if you put him into a vessel of water, he will in 

 variably seek that part of it least exposed to the 

 light, thus manifesting a rudimentary sensibility, 

 which in its more developed state, in higher or 

 ganisms, we call vision. 2 The lower polyps ex 

 hibit also contractility over their whole body ; 

 and it has been supposed that they also possess, in 

 a diffused condition, the germs of smell, taste, and 

 even hearing. 3 When now we ascend to the verte- 

 brata, we find digestion specialized in the stomach, 

 respiration in the lungs, contractility in the mus 

 cles, sensibility in the nerves ; taste, smell, hear 

 ing, and vision, in the mouth, nose, ears, and eyes. 

 This difference coexists with a great increase of 

 power in the several functions. The faculties of 

 the mammal are&quot;, as every one knows, far supe 

 rior to those of the polyp. No one would think 

 of comparing the rudimentary scent of the zo 

 ophyte with the developed scent of the dog, or the 

 rudimentary sight of the acaleph with the devel 

 oped sight of the Bosjesman. Vast, indeed, is the 



1 Draper s Human Physiology, p. 501. 



2 Spencer s Psychology, p. 401. 

 s Ibid. pp. 394-408. 



