503 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



8 



rgaiiisms 



life dissociated from organization. Yet the 

 profoundest physiologists have come to the 

 conclusion that organization is not the 

 cause of life, but, on the contrary, that life 

 is the cause of organization life being 

 something a force of some kind, by what- 

 ever name we may call it which precedes 

 organization, and fashions it, and builds it 

 up. This was the conclusion come to by 

 the great anatomist Hunter, and it is the 

 conclusion indorsed in our own day by such 

 men as Dr. Carpenter and Professor Huxley 

 men neither of whom have exhibited in 

 their philosophy any undue bias towards 

 either theological or metaphysical explana- 

 tions. ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 2, p. 71. 

 (Burt.j 



2474. ORGANIZATION OF INDUSTRY 

 Cooperative Building among Primitive 

 Men. To drag the piles to the lake, and 

 fix them firmly [as supports for lake- 

 dwellings], must also have required much 

 labor, especially when their number is 

 considered. At Wangen alone M. Lohle 

 has calculated that 50,000 piles were used; 

 but we must remember that these were 

 probably not all planted at one time nor by 

 one generation. Wangen, indeed, was cer- 

 tainly not built in a day, but was, no doubt, 

 gradually enlarged as the population in- 

 creased. Herodotus informs us that the 

 Poeonians [an ancient race of lake-dwellers] 

 made the first platform at the public ex- 

 pense, but that, subsequently, at every mar- 

 riage ( and polygamy was permitted ) , the 

 bridegroom was expected to add a certain 

 number of piles to the common support. 

 AVEBURY Prehistoric Times, ch. 6, p. 177. 

 (A., 1900.) 



2475. ORGANIZATION OF LABOR 



Combination against Competition. A mo- 

 ment's consideration will convince us that 

 the same necessities of labor which were 

 found to determine so fatally the condition 

 of women and children are necessities which 

 apply without any abatement to the labor of 

 adult men. ... If a man is placed under 

 such conditions that he cannot save his 

 wife and child from exhausting labor it is 

 certain that the same conditions will im- 

 pose a like necessity upon himself. Never- 

 theless, Parliament has resolutely and wise- 

 ly refused to interfere on his behalf. And 

 why? Because the argument is that the 

 adult man is able, or ought to be able, to 

 defend himself. And so he can; but how? 

 Only by combination. The " law " which 

 results in excessive labor is the law of com- 

 petition that is, it is the attraction ex- 

 erted upon the wills of a multitude of in- 

 dividual men by the rewards of labor. The 

 pressure of this attraction can only be light- 

 ened by bringing those wills under the power 

 of counter-motives, which may induce them 

 to postpone, to some higher interest, the 

 immediate appetites of gain. And this is 

 the work which combination does. ARGYLL 

 Reign of Law, ch. 7, p. 221. (Burt.) 



2476. ORGANS OF SENSE BEYOND 

 MAN'S KEN Mysterious Power of Antenna. 

 The antennae appear to be the most im- 

 portant of the sense-organs [of ants], as 

 their removal produces an extraordinary dis- 

 turbance in the intelligence of the animal. 

 An ant so mutilated can no longer find its 

 way or recognize companions, and therefore 

 is unable to distinguish between friends and 

 foes. It is also unable to^ find food, ceases 

 to engage in any labor, and loses all its 

 regard for larvae, remaining permanently 

 quiet and almost motionless. A somewhat 

 similar disturbance, or rather destruction, 

 of the mental faculties is observable as a 

 result of the same mutilation in the case of 

 bees. ROMANES Animal Intelligence, ch. 3, 

 p. 142. (A., 1899.) 



247 7. ORGANS, RUDIMENTARY A 



True Teleology Unity of Plan. By the 

 adoption of the Darwinian hypothesis, or 

 something like it, which we incline to favor, 

 many of the difficulties are obviated and 

 others diminished. In the comprehensive 

 and far-reaching teleology which may take 

 the place of the former narrow conceptions, 

 organs and even faculties, useless to the in- 

 dividual, find their explanation and reason 

 of being. Either they have done service in 

 the past, or they may do service* in the fu- 

 ture. They may have been essentially use- 

 ful in one way in a past species, and, tho 

 now functionless, they may be turned to 

 useful account in some very different way 

 hereafter. In botany several cases come to 

 our mind which suggest such interpreta- 

 tion. ASA GRAY Darwiniana, art. 13, p. 

 375. (A., 1889.) 



2478. 



Muscles for Mov- 



ing the Ears in Man. Moreover, most of 

 the higher animals possess muscles which 

 are never employed; even man has such 

 rudimentary muscles. Most of us are in- 

 capable of moving our ears as we wish, al- 

 tho the muscles for this movement exist, 

 and altho individual persons who have 

 taken the trouble to exercise these muscles 

 do succeed in moving their ears. It is still 

 possible, by special exercise, by the perse- 

 vering influence of the will upon the nervous 

 system, to reanimate the almost extinct ac- 

 tivity in the existing but imperfect organs, 

 which are on the road to complete disap- 

 pearance. HAECKEL History of Creation, 

 vol. i, ch. 1, p. 12. (K. P. & Co., 1899.) 



2479. 



One Vast Plan of 



Organic Life. These useless members, these 

 rudimentary or aborted limbs which puzzled 

 us so much, are parts of an universal plan. 

 On this plan the bony skeletons of all living 

 animals have been put together. The forces 

 which have been combined for the molding 

 of organic forms have been so combined as 

 to mold them after certain types or pat- 

 terns. And when comparative anatomy has 

 revealed this fact as affecting all the ani- 

 mals of the existing world, another branch 



