APPENDIX 369 



efforts at locomotion, until it developed into a squirm- 

 ing worm that groveled on the bottom of the sea. 



But, as a worm, he was discontented with his con- 

 dition, a characteristic which the human race inherits 

 from his wormship, and so he aspired after a back- 

 bone to aid him in fighting the battles of life. After 

 much meditation, he concluded that he could best 

 acquire this new organ by shifting his habitation and 

 changing his diet; so he moved northward into deeper 

 and colder water, and he added to his diet, once a 

 day, small pellets of rock which would serve as food 

 for backbone. After endless shiftings, from place to 

 place, and the devouring of numerous kinds and of 

 numberless pellets, he succeeded in permanently estab- 

 lishing a rudimentary backbone. He was then an Am- 

 phioxus, the vertebrate ancestor of all the vertebrates. 

 His backbone at this time was extremely weak, and he 

 soon realized that a greater quantity and a firmer 

 quality were desirable, and so he doubled the fre- 

 quency of taking the calcareous pebbles, using them 

 at both his morning and evening repasts, in as large 

 quantities as his stomach could digest. At the same 

 time he entered the sub-marine gymnasium and gave 

 himself up to bending his body from side to side, in 

 order that the rapidly forming backbone might be 

 kept flexible while it increased in strength. By this 

 continual exercise, the hardening bone was developed 

 into distinct vertebrae. 



In this condition he was a fish. While swimming 

 near the shore one day, he was cast by a great wave 

 upon the beach, where he gave himself up as lost. 

 But his partner in the sea, chancing to hear his moans 

 of despair, encouraged him to use his fins for legs, 

 which he immediately did, to the good purpose of 

 soon reaching the water. The view which he obtained 



when cast ashore, brought to his mind the knowledge 



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