434 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



his heliotropism has left him and the sunlight no longer 

 attracts him. He goes even so far as to state that it is a 

 lucky thing for the beetle that the heliotropism leaves 

 him as soon as he has eaten the bud, for if it did not, the 

 beetle would be stuck fast, helpless, at the top of the twig 

 by the upward pull of the sunlight, which he calls helio- 

 tropism. What has become of our thinkers when such 

 statements will stand unchallenged and undisputed? 



Mr. Loeb as well as others should know that sunlight 

 has no more effect on the beetle to pull him in any direc- 

 tion than it has on other animals ; and he should know 

 that the sunlight or heliotropism will not attract a beetle 

 towards his food any more than the same force will at- 

 tract a cow towards a haystack. He should know that 

 the beetle prefers darkness, and goes directly to the top 

 of the tree for something to eat in the darkest nights, as 

 well as at other times when he happens to get out of his 

 house in the ground, where he has been rebuilt from a 

 worm into this beetle by the cells that occupy him. The 

 cells that build the tree beetle need not "take a back seat" 

 for any other cells in the world for inventive ability and 

 constructive skill, not even for the cells that build and 

 guide Mr. Loeb or Mr. Rockefeller. I think the tree bee- 

 tles exhibit a most wonderful skill and intellect in the 

 builders, as is shown by the many inventions of shapes 

 and forms, in these illustrations (Fig. 51) from Mr. 

 Schute's Evolution. A tree beetle is a habitation built 

 by a colony of cells, so as to be able to dig holes in the 

 ground, run up and down the side of trees and navigate 

 the air; and he is of such shape and color as to deceive 

 all his enemies that might wish to devour him, and he 

 certainly is a great success. He is with us today while 

 the larger extinct structures are with us only as fossil 

 bones and remains, and he will be with us on this earth as 



