Picture - Cosmic Polymath

344 DESIGN IN NATURE
manatees, seals, walruses, &c., aSord examples of animals whicli permanently live in the sea, but which at shorter
or longer intervals throughout their entire lives must come to the surface of the water to breathe air.
In reahty these animals are true air-breathers. They give no countenance to the theory that they are land
animals which have adopted the ocean as their home and are in the act of changing their natures and becoming
fishes or fish-like animals. As a matter of fact, the sea mammals occupy a much higher position than fishes in
the organic scale. There is nothing in the histories of the sea mammals to show that these most interesting members
of the organic kingdom are changing either their natures or their external forms to meet the requirements of
natural selection on the one hand, or of evolution on the other.
A certain relation obtains between the breathing habits of animals and their modes of locomotion.
The breathing apparatus and organs of locomotion must be specially provided for during the development and
growth of the several classes of animals-—that is, they are original structures, the outcome of design and pre-arrange-
ment, and not chance products developed during their hves by accident, and by the accumulation of trifling fortuitous
modifications extending over long periods, as claimed by Darwin in his " Origin of Species by Natural Selection."
The breathing and travelhng organs cannot be produced by efforts of will on the part of animals. They are
necessities of hfe, and as such are inborn. Their production is not left to chance, or environment, or any form
of irritation or extraneous stimulation.
Animals are not permitted to breathe air and water indiscriminately ; neither are they constructed to move
on the land, and on and in the water, and the air, with equal facility.
It is not here maintained that one and the same animal may not occasionally walk on the land, swim in the
water, and fly in the air. Several insects and birds do this. All that is meant is that animals primarily adapted
for land transit are, as a rule, indifferent swimmers and cannot fly, while animals originally adapted for swimming
walk badly, or not at all, and cannot fly ; animals which are expressly adapted for flying, in the majority of cases,
swimming and walking with difiiculty.
The walking, swimming, and flying types are well marked ; and all animals, be they insects, fishes, reptiles, birds,
or quadrupeds, must rigorously conform, as regards their general shape, and the form, size, and structure of their
travelUng organs, to the laws which regulate locomotion on the land, and on and in the water and the air respectively.
In all this there is design. The whole animal is constructed on specific hnes to attain certain ends. The
travelling arrangements in adult animals are not temporary but permanent, and animals would attempt in vain
to perform feats on the land, in the water, or the air, for which they had not structural warrant. Structure
invariably precedes function, and until an animal is endowed with the proper travelling organs and surfaces no
satisfactory progress can be made along either of the three great highways of nature—namely, the land, the water, and
the air. The explanation of these hard and fast arrangements is on the surface. All animals, be they great or small,
simple or complex, must be provided with bodies and organs which enable them to pursue, capture, devour, and
assimilate their food. Such as are not so provided sooner or later die of inanition. The procuring of food is as
essential to animals as the procuring of air, and the plan of construction of all animals is threefold, and such as
enables them at once to secure food and air, and to reproduce themselves.
In this connection it is important to point out that no animal can by an effort of will cause its travelling organs
to develop in a particular direction ; still less can it originate or inaugurate their growth at any period of its life history.
The travelling organs, to whatever class of animals they belong, are original endowments conferred by the Architect
of the universe to secure well-defined and desirable objects. They are never chance products ; they never grow
unbidden, or apart from a pre-conceived plan. On the contrary, they are provided for in the embryo and foetus,
in anticipation of the work to be ultimately performed by them. It is not a case of an animal adapting itself
during its Hfe to a particular mode of locomotion ; neither is it a case of environment and extraneous stimulation
of particular parts of the body originating and ensuring the growth of travelling organs at special points. The
travelling organs are part of the original being, and the individual, whatever its position in nature, has no power
to increase or diminish their size, to alter their peculiar shapes, or to change the substances composing them. The
conditions are rigorous and unalterable, and everything must bend to the inevitable as far as effective progression
on the land, on and in the water, and in the air is concerned.
A not uncommon behef is that all hving creatures originally proceeded from the water, and that in the course
of time they modified themselves in such a manner as enabled them to live and move comfortably on the land and
to fly in the air. There is no proof or even analogy to support this theory. In order for a water-breathing and
water-navigating animal to become an air-breathing and air-navigating one, it must develop lungs, and alter its
general shape, and that of its travelling organs. These are structural modifications of the first magnitude, and
beyond the reach of any animal per se. The animal can only grow along the hnes laid down by its parents. If a
water-breathing animal be removed from that element and kept on terra firma for a short time it inevitably dies ;