Jelpless 

 eredity 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



302 



age of five years. I was not at that early 

 period trying to find out any of Nature's 

 secrets, but the scene I witnessed printed 

 itself vividly on my mind, so that I can re- 

 call it as well as if my years had been five- 

 and-twenty; perhaps better. It was on a 

 summer's evening, and I was out by myself 

 at some distance from the house, playing 

 about the high exposed roots of some old 

 trees; on the other side of the trees the 

 cattle, just returned from pasture, were 

 gathered on the bare level ground. Hearing 

 a great commotion among them, I climbed 

 on to one of the high exposed roots, and 

 looking over saw a cow on the ground, ap- 

 parently unable to rise, moaning and bellow- 

 ing in a distressed way, while a number of 

 her companions were crowding round and 

 goring her. [Interpreted by Romanes and 

 others as a protection of the herd against 

 being followed by beasts of prey; by Hud- 

 son as a frenzy of instinct misdirected.] 

 HUDSON Naturalist in La Plata, ch. 22, p. 

 339. (C. & H., 1895.) 



1472. HELPLESSNESS A SOURCE OF 

 POWER Prolongation of Infancy Accompanied 

 by Increase of Brain-surface Gulf between 

 Man and Ape. The gulf by which the low- 

 est known man is separated from the high- 

 est known ape consists in the great increase 

 of his cerebral surface, with the accompany- 

 ing intelligence, and in the very long dura- 

 tion of his infancy. These two things have 

 gone hand in hand. The increase of cere- 

 bral surface, due to the working of natural 

 selection in this direction alone, has entailed 

 a vast increase in the amount of cerebral 

 organization that must be left to be com- 

 pleted after birth, and thus has prolonged 

 the period of infancy. And, conversely, the 

 prolonging of the plastic period of infancy, 

 entailing a vast increase in teachableness 

 and versatility, has contributed to the 

 further enlargement of the cerebral sur- 

 face. FISKE Destiny of Han, ch. 6, p. 54. 

 (H. M. & Co., 1900.) 



1473. HELPLESSNESS OF HUMAN 

 BABE Contrast with Baby Monkey Bodily 

 Development Retarded by the Demands of 

 the Finer Brain This Trains Motherhood. 

 In a few days or weeks the baby monkey 

 is almost able to leave its mother. Already 

 it can climb and eat and chatter like its 

 parents, and in a few weeks more the crea- 

 ture is as independent of them as the 

 winged seed is of the parent tree. Mean- 

 time, and for many months to come, its lit- 

 tle twin is unable to feed itself, or clothe 

 itself, or protect itself; it is a mere semi- 

 unconscious chattel, a sprawling ball of 

 helplessness, the world's one type of im- 

 potence. The body is there in all its parts, 

 bone for bone and muscle for muscle, like 

 the other. But somehow this body will not 

 do its work. Something as yet hangs fire. 

 The body has eyes, but they see not; ears, 

 but they hear not ; limbs, but they walk not. 

 This body is a failure. Why does the hu- 



man infant lie like a log on the forest-bed 

 while its nimble prototype mocks it from 

 the bough above? ... It was necessary 

 for moral training that the human child 

 should have the longest possible time by 

 its mother's side but what determines it 

 on the physical side? The thing that con- 

 stitutes the difference between the baby 

 monkey and the baby man is an extra piece 

 of machinery which the last possesses and 

 the first does not. It is this which is keep- 

 ing back the baby man. What is that piece 

 of machinery? A brain, a human brain. 

 The child, nevertheless, is not using it. 

 Why? Because it is not quite fitted up. 

 Nature is working hard at it; but owing 

 to its intricacy and delicacy the process 

 requires much time, and till all is ready 

 the babe must remain a thing. And why 

 does the monkey brain get ready first? Be- 

 cause it is an easier machine to make. And 

 why should it be easier to make? Because 

 it is only required to do the life-work of 

 an animal; the other has to do the life-work 

 of a man. DRUMMOND Ascent of Man, ch. 8, 

 p. 282. (J. P., 1900.) 



1474. 



Prolonged Infancy 



Gives Time to Elaborate the Brain Child- 

 hood a Time of Installations and Trials. 

 Now infancy, physiologically considered, 

 means the fitting up of this extra machin- 

 ery within the brain; and according to its 

 elaborateness will be the time required to 

 perfect it. A sailing-vessel may put to sea 

 the moment the rigging is in; a steamer 

 must wait for the engines. And the com- 

 pensation to the steamer for the longer time 

 in dock is discovered by and by in its vastly 

 greater usefulness, its power of varying its 

 course at will, and in its superior safety in 

 time of war or storm. For its greater after- 

 usefulness also, its more varied career, its 

 safer life, humanity has to pay tribute to 

 evolution by a delayed and helpless infancy, 

 a prolonged and critical constructive proc- 

 ess. Childhood in its early stage is a series 

 of installations and trials of the new ma- 

 chinery, a slow experimenting with powers 

 and faculties so fresh that heredity in hand- 

 ing them down has been unable to accom- 

 pany them with full directions as to their 

 use. DRUMMOND Ascent of Man, ch. 8, p. 

 285. (J. P., 1900.) 



1475. HELPLESSNESS RESULTING 

 FROM INDOLENCE Slaveholding Ants For- 

 get How To Feed Themselves. In conse- 

 quence of being constantly fed by their 

 slaves, the red ants have entirely forgotten 

 how to procure food for themselves. If 

 they are shut up and supplied with honey, 

 which is their favorite food, they will not 

 touch it, but will suffer hunger, become 

 weak and feeble, and ultimately die of 

 starvation, unless pity is taken upon them 

 and they are given one of their dusky slaves. 

 Directly this is done the slave falls to work, 

 eats a quantity of the honey, and then pro- 

 ceeds to feed its masters, which are per- 



