190 ANDKEW JACKSON HOWE. 



chink in the glass; and at length exhibit green leaves 

 as other plants exposed to sunlight. In order to reach 

 the light the white stalks develop to a much greater 

 length than the ordinary stems of potatoes planted in 

 a field. These vegetative operations seem to show 

 that every organism is endowed with an intuitive 

 sense of the necessities of its being, and with ability 

 to better its condition, especially if circumvented or 

 embarrassed. In reviewing the more common of vital 

 operations, it becomes apparent that some degree of 

 intelligence attends the development of every part and 

 portion of an individual. It seems as if vitality em- 

 braced intelligence as an attribute, and never engaged 

 in the evolution of organic structures without utilizing 

 the attribute as a guide. 



In the evolution of an animal it appears as if the 

 pressing need for a helping peculiarity operated like a 

 desire and as a force to develop an excess of organ 

 and function. The terminal end of a pig's snout has 

 an osseous development in it, called the pre-nasal 

 bone. No other animal, so far as I know, has such a 

 bone, though some snouted ant-eaters possess a cartilag- 

 inous approach to it. What developed this peculiar 

 bone in the gristly end of the swine's snout? Well, 

 suppose the earlier of the race had no bone in the 

 nose, yet an excess of dense structure, such as cartilage 

 and fibrous tissue. The creature in rooting for food 

 would use the snout excessively, and thus tend to 

 elaborate a better rooter. Use improves an organ. 

 Cartilage hardened to bone, and fibrous tissue became 

 muscle, so that at length the osseous pivot was moved 

 with ease. A useful snout was thus evolved by the 

 needs of the creature ! At any rate, this is a sample 

 of the reasoning of the avowed evolutionist. 



