FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



this condition becomes a kind of "anticipatory touch." 

 The adjustment continues; a slight bulging out of the 

 epidermis over the pigment-granules supervenes. A lens 

 is incipient, and, through the operation of infinite adjust- 

 ments, at length reaches the perfection that it displays in 

 the hawk and eagle. So of the other senses; they are 

 special differentiations of a tissue which was originally 

 vaguely sensitive all over. 



With the development of the senses, the adjustments 

 between the organism and its environment gradually ex- 

 tend in space, a multiplication of experiences and a corre- 

 sponding modification of conduct being the result. The 

 adjustments also extend in time, covering continually 

 greater intervals. Along with this extension in space 

 and time the adjustments also increase in speciality and 

 complexity, passing through the various grades of brute 

 life, and prolonging themselves into the domain of rea- 

 son. Yery striking are Mr. Spencer's remarks regarding 

 the influence of the sense of touch upon the development 

 of intelligence. This is, so to say, the mother- tongue of 

 all the senses, into which they must be translated to be 

 of service to the organism. Hence its importance. The 

 parrot is the most intelligent of birds, and its tactual 

 power is also greatest. From this sense it gets knowl- 

 edge, unattainable by birds which cannot employ their 

 feet as hands. The elephant is the most sagacious of 

 quadrupeds its tactual range and skill, and ' the conse- 

 quent multiplication of experiences, which it owes to its 

 wonderfully adaptable trunk, being the basis of its sagac- 

 ity. Feline animals, for a similar cause, are more saga- 

 cious than hoofed animals atenement being to some ex- 

 tent made, in the case of the horse, by the possession of 





