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CHAPTER VII 



THE SENSES OF ANIMALS 



The action of the Nervous System as a means of 

 response. — The procession of animal life from simplicity 

 to complexity of structure, each phalanx fitted to an 

 existence varying in richness of contact with itself 

 and its surroundings, is a choric response to calls upon 

 its nature that ages of trial have evoked. 



Every living thing is an old hand. Its choice of 

 station and movement therein, its choice of food 

 and mode of breathing, its structure and the relation 

 of the component parts, are traditional and reflect 

 the heat and cold, the light and darkness, the hunger 

 and plenty of many generations. Some mighty 

 control has guided the steps by which each section of 

 this complex composition comes orderly into existence, 

 sustains itself there, develops, founds its family, and 

 after a day, a year, or a century makes room for its 

 fellows, leaving traces which cannot be mistaken of 

 the part it has played. The organisation of each 

 being, and of the pageant of which it is an assignable 

 part, exhibits signs of that orderly control and re- 

 lationship to the course of events within and without 



