434 The Laws of Emphasis and Symmetry. [July, 
the fundtion of a digesting organ without injury to its stores 
it- seems as if some of the liquid food must make its way 
into the stomach and intestine, despite their extreme com- 
pression, and be there prepared for aliment- 
P It is, in faft, a puzzling question. Dr. McCook is inc 
to think stomach digestion, in some instances P 
But the continued vitality of the ant seems to 
necessary, despite its apparent impossibility. 
III. THE “ LAWS OF EMPHASIS AND 
SYMMETRY.” 
By J. W. Slater. 
'HE presence and the distribution of colour in the 
“ organic world have not passed unnoticed in the 
« Journal of Science.” Sexual seleftion, the need of 
concealment, the influence of light, of temperature and 
diet! and even certain “ waves of beauty,” have all been put 
forward as affording partial or complete solutions of the 
auestions involved. No one, however, will contend that the 
explanations given are fully satisfaftory, or indeed cover 
more than a corner of the subjeft. The general rule with 
those naturalists— and unfortunately also un-naturalists 
who have attempted to show why an animal displays some 
particular colours in some particular design is to oveilook 
all phases of the subject save the one which has first 
attradted their attention. But are the chemico-physical, 
the vital, and the utilitarian theories of animal colouration 
necessarily contradictory and mutually destruftive ? I think 
not Suppose it is shown that an animal of some given 
colour harmonises better with its surroundings than if its 
hues were modified ; it may then be argued that, on the 
principle of the Survival of the Fittest, individuals of the 
species in question will have been able to escape the notice 
of their enemies, and to leave posterity the more success- 
fully, the more decidedly they possessed such colour. But 
it i /surely not contradictory to this explanation if we poin 
out some constituent in the food of the species from which. 
