Burt Green Wilder

“ We must either assume, on the one hand, that living organisms commenced their existence fully formed, and by processes not in accordance with the usual order of Nature, as it is revealed to human minds, or, on the other hand, that each species became such by progressive development or transmutation; that, as in the individual, so in the aggregate of races, the simple forms were not only the precursors, but the progenitors of the complex ones, and that thus the order of Nature, as commonly manifest in her works, was maintained. ”

“ We may as well state at once that a bat is really a mammal; that is, it agrees with moles, rats, sheep, horses, cats, monkeys, and men, in bringing forth its young alive, and nursing them by milk; in having red blood-corpuscles, which contain no nucleus; in being clothed with hair; and in possessing a corpus callosum, that is, a band of fibres connecting the two cerebral hemispheres.
There are other anatomical features which link the bats closely with the moles and shrews and hedge-hogs. Indeed, the bat might be described as a flying mole, or the mole as a burrowing bat. ”

“ As the years roll on, and as the final estimate is made of the value of what has been done in this century, we may be sure that the name of Jeffries Wyman will stand high among those who have joined rare ability and unwearied industry with a pure and noble life. ”

“ The most obvious difference is in color: the throat and chest of the old fox are whitish, also the tip of the tail; the back of the ears, the front and outer surface of the paws to near the elbows and knees, are black, and there are scattered black hairs on the tail; the rest of the body is reddish brown; and as a whole the animal would be called a "red fox," although a stripe across the shoulders of a darker red might entitle it to the name of "cross" fox. ”

“ In the first place, if allowed, we should have to admit that all the so-called air-breathing vertebrates have organs (the lungs) which have no representative in the fishes, and that most of the latter have an organ (the air-bladder) which has no representative in the former.
It is true that some fishes have no air-bladder; but with some, as Amphioxtis, the lamprey-eels, the sharks, [5] and the skates, we may infer that it has not yet become developed; while with others, as the flat fishes, the air-bladder may have been lost through what may be called a local retrograde metamorphosis. ”

“ Those who knew Wyman's nature may well imagine how he shrank from any thing like a discussion of two great questions upon which so much has been written during the past fifteen years, namely, the "Origin of Species" and "Spontaneous Generation." But, aside from his natural desire to know and teach the most correct doctrine upon these subjects, his prominent position made it imperative that he should consider them carefully. Respecting evolution, he evidently felt, with Prof. Gray, that, "upon very many questions, a truly wise man remains long in a state of neither belief nor unbelief ”

“ It is important to note, also, that an air-bladder and lungs have never been found in one and the same animal; and since arms, front-legs, flippers, and wings, are all regarded as modifications of the same organs, anterior limbs; and since, in many other cases, organs of very different size, form, complexity, and function, are considered as homologous, we shall be following precedent in admitting a willingness to regard air-bladders and lungs as modifications of the same organ. ”

“ Some transformations certainly seem to relate very distinctly to the welfare of the individual, as when the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, and when the aquatic larvas of mosquito and dragon-fly change their forms with their habits and modes of life. ”

“ But there is something more to be said of our little fox and its mother: a closer examination of the former shows that there are two kinds of hair corresponding to the two colors; the body and tail, and upper parts of the legs, are thickly covered with a kind of soft wool, of a smoke-color, but the head presents longer and reddish-colored hairs; and these same hairs are scattered over the body, more thickly in front than behind; the two kinds are as thick brush-wood and saplings; under the microscope they are even more unlike; for the "wool" is crinkled, and its texture very transparent ”

“ Every person who shall perform, or cause to be performed, or assist in performing, in or upon any living animal, an act of vivisection, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Sec 2. The term vivisection used in this act shall include every investigation, experiment, or demonstration, producing, or of a nature to produce, pain or disease in any living animal, including the cutting, wounding, or poisoning thereof; except when the same is for the purpose of curing or alleviating some physical suffering or disease in such living animal, or in order to deprive it of life when incurable. ”

“ The general appearance of the gar-pike is sufficiently indicated by the figure. The body is an elongated cylinder covered with hard and shining scales closely joined, and leaving as vulnerable points only the throat and gills, the eyes, and the parts just under the pectoral fins. The tail is moderate in size and rounded, the longest rays a little above the middle, so that it is not quite symmetrical. Upon the hinder part of the back is the dorsal fin, and below the dorsal an anal fin, immediately in front of which is the vent or outlet of the alimentary canal. ”

“ For, to the ignorant and superstitious the sudden apparition of a blazing comet has often been a portent of disaster, while even the intelligent shrink with aversion from the flitting bat, and make comparisons with evil spirits. ”

“ Now, the eggs of all mammals are small, usually microscopic. The human ovum is about 1⁄120 of an inch in diameter.
Therefore, although the yolk or essential part of the egg of a humming-bird may be pretty small, it is far larger than the largest mammalian ovum; while that of the ostrich or the Epyornis is simply gigantic in comparison.
Now, I am not aware that the ovum of a bat has ever been examined, but there can be doubt of its minuteness as compared with that of any known bird. Fig. 5 shows, of its natural size, the earliest embryo of a bat I have ever heard of. ”

“ Perhaps one element of distrust of the bat family arises from their apparent non-conformity to either of the common animal types. The bat seems to be either a bird with hair and teeth, bringing forth its young alive, or a mammal with wings, and the general aspect and habit of a bird. ”

“ Shall we, then, conclude that these changes in the appearance of a single individual are for the sake of variety—as some would explain the great diversity of specific form and coloration among animals and plants? ”

“ It is important not to confound the fundamental order of Nature, which is indeed immutable, with the ideas, more or less complete, which we entertain at a given time, respecting the manner in which that order is manifested. ”

“ It appears, then, that the hinder end of the body undergoes considerable change before reaching the adult condition. Aside from the partial disappearance of the primordial median fin and the gradual development of the ventrals, the dorsals, and the anal, the caudal fin assumes at least three distinct forms. The first is lance-shaped and simple, like that of Amphioxus, the eel, the lamprey, salamanders, and tadpoles. The second is compound, with a slender filament above and a broader fin below, as with some sturgeons and sharks. ”

“ But it is only fair to them (the bat family) to admit that the number of species which thus injure men and the larger animals is very small; and that, while all of our own bats, and most of those of other lands, are fierce devourers of insects, and use their sharp teeth for defense against their captors, there are many kinds, especially the larger (Roussettes, etc.) , which live almost wholly upon fruits, and are, moreover, quite good eating themselves. ”

“ But the very young would seem to be even more in need of such precaution, and with them the tail is relatively as large as in the adult, although differently shaped. Finally, even if we conclude that the three distinct stages of the tail are perfectly adapted to certain hypothetically unlike necessities, what shall be said of the intermediate conditions? While growing, the infra-caudal lobe must be rather a hinderance than a help to the movements of the primitive tail; and while disappearing, the filament, being useless, must be, if anything, an incumbrance. ”

“ But now, when the idea of an actual evolution or derivation of widely different forms from me another, or from common stocks, is rapidly becoming the fundamental postulate of all biological research, we are bound to inquire whether one mode of expression is not much more likely to be true than the other. ”

“ Bergh's affirmations and accusations suggest that his hatred of vivisection is stronger than his love for courtesy and truth, and if the argument sævus in Europa, scevus in America, which is really all he has to offer against New York physiologists, were turned against him in the original form of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, the advocates of unlimited dog-fights and cocking-mains might well object to the recognition of such a witness against their favorite sports. But, when all else is considered, the evidence proves too much. The man of pure and upright life ”

“ Those who denounce all vivisection as "barbarous" are asked to note that the performance of the ten experiments above described involves only the pain of a hypodermic injection or of pithing, since, whenever the animal is alive during the operation, complete insensibility is produced by anæsthetics. Most of the experiments, however, are done upon dead animals—that is, a man treated in like manner would be legally defunct. ”

“ The uniformity in number with each species is very striking. Twenty-two of one species had each two young, while forty of another had each one.
In the former case the young were placed one on the right and the other on the left of the body. But in the latter case the single young was invariably on the right side; while, in the single specimen of the undetermined Brazilian bat, the young was on the left side.
Equally striking with the above facts is the isolation of the females with young. ”

“ But, with many sharks, the common sturgeons, and the spoonbill (Polyodon) , the size of the infra-caudal lobe is so nearly that of the filament as to give the whole tail a nearly symmetrical outline, and lead zoologists to speak of the "upper lobe," whereas it is really the bent-up end of the body. This kind of tail is called heterocercal.
The gars above mentioned are supposed to be the young of the Lepidosteus osseus. Just at what size the filament wholly disappears in that species is not known. ”

“ But the air-bladder of Amia and Lepidosteus is divided into many cells, so as to resemble a frog's lungs; and the walls and partitions of these cells have many blood-vessels. These air-bladders are, in fact, more cellular and more vascular than the lungs of Menobranchus, or the hinder and larger portion of the lungs of serpents. And, in the light of the observations already recorded, there seems good reason for believing that pure air is inhaled and vitiated air exhaled whenever the fish rises to the surface. ”

“ Having in this way reduced the prey to a rounded ball, in which its limbs are hardly distinguishable, the spider takes it in her jaws and mounts to her place.
A single fly of ordinary size seems to occupy a whole day in the eating. When finished, the remains are cast down as a pellet, so perfectly deprived of moisture, that it is probable that this species, like the Nephila, and perhaps all Epeiridæ, sucks out the gum of its old net and reëlaborates it in her organs for use in making a new one. ”

“ The adjective unoffending is objectionable merely because, like so many other words used by the same writer, it tends to throw a sentimental film over the eyes of logic and severe justice through which the whole matter should be viewed, and it is altogether probable that the dog thus utilized for the exemplification of several important physiological truths was, like most vivisection "subjects," a worthless street cur whose death, in the manner described, was a relief to the community, and a positive deliverance from a worse fate through hunger or cold, or at the hands of ill-regulated boys. ”

“ We may, then, dismiss from our minds any anxiety as to whether bats are partly birds and partly mammals, and conclude merely that, upon the essential mammalian structure, there have been superinduced features which enable the bat to fly in the air ”

“ The bat form is peculiar among mammals, and does not, like the Ornithorhynchus and Echidna, manifest any internal structural affinity with birds. There is a much more marked resemblance to the extinct flying reptiles (Pterodactyli) , but this is probably one of analogy.
2. The embryo bat resembles the ordinary small mammal; the long fingers, the persistence of the web between them, and its continuation from the border of the body and tail, are features of later appearance. ”

“ In the State of New York are very few men whose natural and acquired powers of body and mind qualify them to determine when painful experiments are required, to perform them successfully, and to wisely interpret the results. ”

“ Agassiz has a corps of little boys, engaged in catching the tiniest fishes, so insignificant in size that the regular fishermen, who can never be made to understand that a fish which is not good to eat can serve any useful purpose, always throw them away. ”