Feb. lo, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



137 



of motion, and these animals walk as soon as they have 

 quitted the womb or the egg. 



"P/iysicus. — I think I have observed that birds learn 

 to fly and acquire the use of their limbs by continued 

 efforts, in the same manner as a child does that of his 

 limbs. 



" Ornither. — I cannot agree with you. Young birds 

 cannot fly as soon as they are hatched, because they have 

 no wing-feathers ; but as soon as these are developed, and 

 even before they are perfectly strong, they use their 

 wings, fly and quit the nest without any education from 

 their parents." 



Very similar assertions may be found in an attempt 

 made by the late Professor Whewell (" Philosophy of 

 the Inductive Sciences ") to set aside the plain truth that 

 man, like every other animal, has an instinctive know- 

 ledge of the use of his limbs and other voluntary organs. 

 Said the learned professor : — 



"The child learns to distinguish forms and positions 

 by a repeated and incessant use of his hands and eyes ; 

 he learns to walk, to run, and to leap, by slow and 

 laborious degrees ; he distinguishes one man from 

 another, and one animal from another only after repeated 

 mistakes. Nor can we conceive this to be otherwise. 

 How should the child know at once what muscles he is 

 to exert that he may stand and not fall till he has often 

 tried ? How should he learn to direct his attention to 

 the differences of different faces and persons till he is 

 roused by some memorj', or hope, which implies me- 

 mory ? It seems to me as if the sensations could not, 

 without considerable practice, be rightly referred to ideas 

 of space, force, resemblance, and the like. Yet that 

 which thus appears impossible is, in fact, done by animals. 

 The lamb, almost immediately after its birth, follows its 

 mother, accommodating the action of its muscles to the 

 form of the ground. The chick just emerged from the 

 shell picks up a minute insect, directing its beak with the 

 greatest accuracy. Even the human infant seeks the 

 breast and exerts its muscles in sucking almost as soon 

 as it is born." 



So, after all, " that which thus appears impossible " 

 is, in fact, done not by " animals " alone, but by man 

 also I The concession contained in the last sentence is 

 fatal to all that has gone before. The professor ought, 

 by all means, to have asserted that infants learn to suck 

 only " by slow and laborious degrees." It would 

 scarcely have been a more wanton assumption than he 

 has indulged in freely in the course of his argument. 



In the same vein as Davy and Whewell, teleologists 

 and rhetoricians, when enlarging upon the marvels of 

 instinct, have seldom failed to trot out the colt, the calf, 

 and the lamb, and to erect upon the precocity of these 

 creatures, as compared with the slow development of 

 our own species, a fancied wall of demarcation between 

 " man and beast." Had they been really actuated by a 

 scientific spirit, they would have felt it their bounden 

 duty, first to ascertain whether all the lower animals 

 were, in contrast to man, able to use their limbs at 

 once after birth. Had they done so they might have 

 come upon evidence similar to what is thus given by 

 an eye-witness (A. R. Wallace, " Malay Archipelago ") : — 

 " The mias (orang-utan), like a very young baby, 

 lying on its back quite helpless, rolling lazily from side 

 to side, stretching out all fours into the air, wishing to 

 grasp something, but hardly able to guide its fingers to 

 any definite object ; and, when dissatisfied, opening wide 

 its mouth and expressing its wants by an almost infan- 



tile scream. . . . When I had had it for about a month 

 it began to exhibit some signs of learning to run alone. 

 When laid upon the floor it would push itself along by 

 its legs, or roll over, and thus make an unwieldy pro- 

 gression. When lying in the box it would lift itself up 

 to the edge into almost an erect position, and once or 

 twice succeeded in tumbling over." 



Thus we see that the nearer brutes approach to man 

 the more gradual is their development. The young ape 

 in question was evidently learning the use of its limbs 

 in the same manner as a human child. The process 

 which, in the colt and the lamb is so shortened as to be- 

 come imperceptible, is here shown at length. That the 

 child makes still more gradual process, especially in the 

 higher races of mankind, is a mere diff"erence of degree. 

 {To be coiitimied.) 



— •►^!»i^><^5<^ — 



THE PROGRESS OF BOTANY IN CAL- 

 CUTTA. 



SURGEON-MAJOR G. KING, the Superintendent of 

 the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, has recently 

 presented his annual report to the Secretary of the 

 Government of Bengal. This being the hundredth 

 annual report, he has deemed it a fitting opportunity 

 for giving a brief history of the Garden. Founded 

 under the advice and guidance of Colonel Robert Kyd, 

 it originally comprised a large collection of exotic plants, 

 chiefly from the Straits. Subsequent superintendents 

 enlarged the original scheme of the work, and did much 

 to further the systematic study of the plants of India. 

 Collecting expeditions were organised, and a botanical 

 survey of a large part of the Indian Empire was under- 

 taken. It was originally intended that the Garden 

 should be a source of botanical information, and a centre 

 to which exotic plants of economic interest could be im- 

 ported for experimental cultivation, and from which in 

 turn they could be issued for distribution. It was also 

 intended to assist in introducing indigenous Indian pro- 

 ducts to new markets, and to be not only a botanical, but 

 also a horticultural and agricultural garden. In early 

 days the Garden undoubtedly did service of a negative 

 nature by demonstrating that certain desirable natural 

 products cannot be grown in Bengal. Later the Garden 

 bore an important part in the final establishment of the 

 tea industry in Northern India, and also in initiating and 

 carrying to a successful issue the cultivation of the 

 quinine-yielding cinchonas of the Andes. Under the 

 present superintendent much has been done to repair the 

 ravages of the cyclones in 1864 and 1867, new roads and 

 footpaths have been made, and three new conservatories 

 have been erected. The interchange and distribution of 

 plants and seeds have gone on actively during the year ; 

 8,064 plants have been received, and 46,104 issued; 933 

 packets of seeds have been received, and 2,534 packets 

 have been distributed. The report shows very clearly 

 the valuable character of the work carried on at the 

 Botanic Garden, Calcutta. It is certainly desirable that 

 such authoritative help should be given to check the 

 needless waste of individual efforts. 



Vitality of Seeds. — Two Germ.an seedsmen of large 

 experience give eight years as the limit of the vitality of 

 most seeds. 



