38 
Gravitation as a Factor 
[January, 
difficulty of flight being greatly increased, we might look 
for a corresponding diminution in the number of aerial 
species, and an alteration in the habits of such as do exist. 
The dragonfly, which in order to find a sufficiency of food 
hawks about through the whole of the day ; the tiger-beetle, 
who seizes his victims by a series of bounds, and short 
though rapid flights ; the butterflies and bees, who have to 
visit thousands of flowers in order to obtain a sufficiency 
of honey or of pollen — must all find the struggle for exist- 
ence rendered more arduous, and would doubtless be less 
numerous both in species and individuals. Hence the fer- 
tilisation of flowers by the intervention of inserts must be 
impeded, and anemophilous species would receive an advan- 
tage which they do not now possess, and which would 
lead to the extinction — or at least to the great reduction — 
of entomophilous plants, i.e ., all those with the showiest 
blossoms : a somewhat, unexpected result to follow from a 
mere increase of the earth’s attraction ! Creeping inseCts 
would merely find their position deteriorated in the same 
manner as would land animals. Hence they would have a 
relative advantage over their winged brethren, and might 
probably become in consequence more abundant. Such 
articulate forms as the centipedes, the scorpions, and the 
ground-spiders — having, by reason of their numerous legs, 
many points of support — would fare the best, though even 
such creatures would find it more difficult to run, and much 
more so to climb and leap, than they do at present. The 
ordinary cobweb-making spiders would have to make their 
nets of an increased strength, in order to support their own 
weight and that of their prey. The true gossamer-spiders, 
which now are able to mount up in the air to a considerable 
height, would find their flights at an end. 
The terrestrial Mollusca — snails, slugs, and the like — 
would be little incommoded, so long at least as their journeys 
were confined to the level ground. Hence they would un- 
doubtedly play a more important part. 
Such, then, are the changes which would ensue, for 
instance, in our own globe, from a mere increase of its 
attractive force. Numbers of animal and vegetable species 
would find the balance so far turned against them that they 
would more or less rapidly succumb. Other species would 
find increased scope and opening, and, if the Evolutionist 
view be correct, would doubtless branch out into a multitude 
of new forms. But all, to survive, would have to be struc- 
turally modified to a greater or less degree in the manner I 
have already pointed out. 
