William Lucas Distant

“ How little is the cause of Darwinism advanced by many exhibitions made at scientific societies! The advocate exhibits—say, insects—which, belonging to different orders, closely resemble each other in colour, markings, or structure, and which he reasonably adduces as an example of "mimicry," but misuses a suggestion as a demonstration. The Darwinian sceptic at once denies the strength of the whole argument, because it cannot be demonstrated as a fact, and has not been put forward as a suggestion only. ”

“ If turned out for a run on a paved floor the little mailed beast with his Pig-like eyes and pseudo-crustacean armour presents a most odd appearance as he patters about at a great pace on his stumpy legs. Fearless of injury under his natural shield, the Armadillo scrambles over, beneath, or through everything, and objects lighter than himself are promptly upset, so that one can easily credit the story of one of these animals which, when turned out for a run on a billiard table by his admiring owner, soon wrecked it by ripping up the cloth with his claws. ”

“ Tact is often a silence which mimics the modest reticence of a learned man and thus conceals the ignorant. It appears as the bluster of the psychological moment when the coward receives an immunity from his protective resemblance to the brave; the rogue often succeeds by mimicking the devout; the sneak assumes the garb of frankness; the lie only triumphs when it simulates the truth. ”

“ Let us bring grist to the mill, even if others alone are capable of producing the meal; surely the naturalist can collate his facts, give his experience, and propound his views, without seeking a "patent" for every idea, or to be the parent of another theory. At the present time, among many students of biology there seems a desire to advocate what may be called a personal theory. Such workers will, with the greatest avidity, dissect and criticise the theories advanced by others. But their own theory is sacred, is, in fact, "totem." This feeling is almost a form of survival. ”

“ In all reflections on the wonderful adaptations in nature by which living creatures obtain a protection from their enemies by assimilative colour or structure, we must remember that in the struggle for existence fecundity plays no small part in producing survival. As De Quincey spoke of man in China as being but a weed, so throughout nature we often find excessive reproduction alone preventing extermination, and quite replacing the aid of protective or mimetic disguise in the "survival of the fittest." ”

“ But the "law" of natural selection had as much a beginning in time, and in biological time, as the "moral law"—practised in some form or another by the greater part of mankind—must have been unknown to our more bestial ancestors; little understood by prehistoric man, and only fully developed as human civilization and slavery advanced hand in hand, through peace and plenty, through misery and despair. ”

“ But we cannot say that the hue which we describe as white is the same as that apprehended by the insects. Distinct it must undoubtedly be to secure the permanent selection of their visits, but we can say no more. Because an insect invariably selects and visits a flower of one particular colour, we can only record the observation, but certainly not assume that what we see as white is seen by them in the same hue. ”

“ Rat-like in body, bird-like in movements, its tiny person is supported on an absurd pair of stilt legs and a Kangaroo tail. In the daytime the Jerboa is a soft ball of fur asleep in its box; at night its activity is a remarkable contrast to its diurnal lethargy, as it flits like a shadow over the floor of its cage. I have now had nearly a dozen of these animals. They are cheap to buy and easy to keep, requiring no more care than so many Rabbits, and needing no artificial heat in winter if kept indoors and warmly bedded. ”

“ We observe a strong similarity between an animal and its environment, or between one which we believe possesses a quality procuring immunity from attack, and another in which that quality is absent, and we conclude that the resemblance or mimicry is equally observable by other creatures. Surely an element of error is present in this deduction. Is our world as we see it—and thus can only imagine it—the same in actual identity as that known by the sense cognitions of all animal life? ”

“ How far have we at present accounted for the varied animal colouration which we see around us? the glory of our cabinetdrawers, the mysterious wonder in the galleries of our museums, the charm of travellers abroad, and appreciative lovers of nature at home. Very much, when the difficulty of the problem is considered, and especially where the utility of animal disguises and mimicking appearances has been unravelled by the magic wand of "natural selection," or "the survival of the fittest." ”

“ Towards evening it wakes up, and begins to explore every inch of its prison with a steady systematic diligence, which contrasts oddly with the alert nimbleness of a Jerboa or Squirrel, the Armadillo sniffing solemnly over every part of the floor, and thrusting its wedge-like head into every crevice; should any leverage be obtained, the animal at once commences to wrench its way out. ”

“ She was not only recognized as a naturalist—being an entomologist of no inconsiderable attainment—but she was distinguished in the higher sense of rendering her science a practical value for the good of humanity. We know in many cases the absolute impossibility of bringing zoology into the domain of our national economy; we also clearly see the advisability of not seeking to do so on insufficient grounds; but it was the great work in the life of Miss Ormerod that she made her favourite science a blessing to the community. ”

“ Good cause is shown why we should seek in past geological epochs for the earliest traces of protective resemblances and mimicry, for the absence of observed attack in the present time does not disprove a great danger and want of protection in the dim eras of the past. "In studying protective resemblance and mimicry among living animals, the exceedingly common occurrence of these phenomena has often forced upon me the conclusion that they have not been limited in their scope to recent times, but must have existed in past epochs, and even, to some extent at least, in very remote epochs." ”

“ In spite of the rapid progress which the science of zoology has made during the last twenty years, the study of living mammals in captivity remains a comparatively neglected branch of natural history, being almost entirely left to the learned members of zoological societies. The private individuals who have systematically taken up this most interesting work may almost be enumerated on the fingers of one hand—this neglect of so fascinating a pursuit being all the more remarkable considering the activity displayed by naturalists in other departments of the animal world. ”

“ Without losing ourselves in metaphysical subtleties as to whether things really exist as cognizable by our sense organs, or whether much of our materialism is not only to a considerable degree a question of sensation, we must at least push that problem beyond ourselves, and estimate it throughout all animal life if we hope to gain any clear ideas of the phenomena of animal colouration, or the more complex conceptions of mimicry or protective resemblance. ”

“ The survival is probably owing to fecundity alone, which prevents extermination from the many foes and adverse conditions which environ their lives. One may stand before the tank in a large aquarium, and be impressed with the assimilative colouration of the upper sides of flat-fishes to the sandy or pebbly bottom on which they rest, but still no difficulty is experienced in distinguishing the living creatures; and if this be so, and with our untrained perceptions, how much stronger must be the detective powers of those natural enemies whose prey is their necessity! ”

“ The very essence of the theory of protective resemblance, as a means of survival consequent upon the slow but sure action of natural selection, is a special, not a general effect,—a particular, not an universal attribute,—but one of the many and diverse qualifications which enable animals and plants to survive in the competitive struggle for existence. ”

“ If, on the other hand, we allow—as surely we ought—variation to exist in sense perceptions, as it undoubtedly does in the structure of sense organs, then, without leaving this planet, we may well understand that there are "other worlds than ours." Even in homology and variation, as Bateson has observed, "we have allowed ourselves to judge too much by human criterions of difficulty, and we have let ourselves fancy that nature has produced the forms of life from each other in the ways which we would have used, if we had been asked to do it." ”

“ It was incidental and consequent to the progress of evolution in animal life, and ever increasing its sway in ratio with the vast increase of living things became the giant modifying influence, and modelled, painted, exterminated, and sustained the fauna and flora which by their dangerous fecundity came under her rule. But because a phenomenon is ancient it is not necessarily eternal—theologians discuss those questions—and if logic imperatively demands an antecedent to natural selection, biology must refuse to recognize that undoubtedly mighty and modifying influence as a First Cause. ”

“ By the quickness of their eyes they can discover buck and other kinds of game from a great distance; "they are equally expert in watching a Bee to its nest. They no sooner hear the humming of the insect than they squat themselves on the ground, and, having caught it with the eye, follow it to an incredible distance." ”

“ Can we not more easily imagine that animals assimilated in colour with the monotonous and semi-sombre hues of their then environment; but as they multiplied and the struggle for existence caused migration, the same inherent tendency to assimilative colouration prompted assimilative variation in response to the difference in surrounding conditions, and when this variation became adaptive and protective, the process of natural selection accentuated and perpetuated whatever was advantageous to the creature's existence. ”

“ It is probable that highly protected or mimicking species are only destroyed by their most acutely sense-organized enemies, and have a general immunity from the attacks of the ordinary animal pirates. We have no more reason to predicate a dead level in the intelligence of a single species or genus of animals than we have to believe that the same character exists in Homo sapiens himself. For in nature, pace Ecclesiastes, the race is to the swift, and the battle is to the strong, though the exceptions of "time and chance" may prove the rule. ”

“ In cold weather—such as winter nights—or when exposed to the full rays of the summer sun, she invariably covered herself with a sack as protection, using it as a white woman does a cloak, or a Kafir woman a blanket. Her staple food was boiled mealies varied with bread, of which she was particularly fond. Add carrots, an occasional cabbage, fruits such as bananas and oranges, and on high days some pine-apple, nuts, a few sweets, or a handful of tobacco, and her tale of food is completed. ”

“ The friend of to-day may have been the enemy of a long ago. Environmental changes may have produced, by a scarcity of usual food, a change of diet, and then a race of animals hitherto enjoying a comparative immunity from attack may suddenly become almost annihilated by unexpected foes. Thus we may now find an inherited mimetic resemblance among insects and other living creatures which we seek in vain to explain by observed attack, and consequently cannot prove the present need of protection. These disguises are often like remains of old earthworks which we find on our peaceful downs ”

“ Those holding to the theory of descent, evolution, or transmutation, look upon varieties, species, subgenera, genera, families, orders, classes, and sub-kingdoms, as distinctions of merely transient importance, corresponding to the state of our information at the present time; it being assumed that by means of gradual transmutation during the course of ages all organisms have become evolved from a single primitive cell, or from a few primitive types. ”

“ That animal intelligence is sufficient to prove much mimicry of an active and not of a merely passive character, is abundantly advocated by facts. That an insect or bird should seek and obtain concealment by its own volition, and by a sense of adaptation in bringing into juxtaposition its own peculiarly-coloured body with some material object with which it closely assimilates, is an exemplification of intellect, though inferior to that shown in the general psychology of Bees, Wasps, and Ants. ”

“ If these mimicking or protective disguises have not been incidental to a phase of evolution, they must have been created as they are, and even the advocates of this view—if any competent are left—would surely not enunciate the idea of a purposeless creation, or the fanciful freaks of a Demiurgos, for such must be the case if no purpose is served by these extraordinary imitations. On the other hand, what can the evolutionist reply when he is confronted with the only other postulate of astonished ignorance expressed in the terms of "a freak of nature"? ”

“ There may be much pure guessing, considerable theoretical sack without much bread of fact; but to abstain from all theory is equivalent to discarding the method of Darwin, to ignoring the speculation of a Humboldt. ”

“ The test of protection is concealment from the keen search of enemies, not merely an assimilative process, as noted by casual observers. Of course a partial concealment is a partial protection, but it is difficult to see how this applies to the Hare, and in the Transvaal, where most of these lines were written, I found it as foolish an animal, and one as easy to discover and shoot, as in England. ”

“ All our present knowledge of animal colouration is derived from motive; show us a practical use for the same in the creature's life, either in "protective and aggressive resemblance or mimicry," or in warning or nuptial colours, and the same is at once found to dovetail in that marvellous intellectual conception of this our time, so well known as Darwinism. ”