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Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 314, 29 September 1908, Page 8

The common idea that, evolution means a' process of continuous betterment is very far from the true. "While, the normal path of development is towards a more highly specialised and therefore more, efficient form, it may happen that change of habit or environment robs certain animal structures' of their utility. Vt'hon. this is the case they at once begin to disappear. By a curious but easily explained parados the moro useless they become thq more slowly do they dwindle away. When they have become reduced to rudiments, perhaps merely miscrocopic in size, they may linger on' for countless centuries. When this happens they, of course, form a most important index to the course of evolution, and it would be quite possible to construct a theory of evolution from consideration of such rudimentary structures alone. The most obvious examples of degeneration aro to be found among parasites. Such organisms find their food ready prepared for them by their host, and they therefore need none of the organs which, would enable them to search for it. If the'parasitism is com-, plcto it is quite common, therefore, to find that legs, wings, eyes, and ears have all disappeared; while, since the food is already prepared for digestion, the stomach is greatly simplified; indeed, some parasites have completely lost their alimentary system. Since the main object of the nervous system is to keep eyes, ears, and limbs going, the nerves of parasites likewise degenerate. ' Their life being slow and sedentary, tissue changes aro small, and henco there is little need either of respiration or circulation. All the incentives to efficiency and specialisation thus tend to disappear, and the parasite, becomes, as philosophers would say, tho victim of moral inertia, reels back into the simplest imaginable kind of beast, Mr. Thomas A. Edison, the great inventor, has just told us df an experiment tending to prove his theory that a normal man needs not more than four hours of sleep in tho twenty-four. The test involved 100 men employed in tho Edison laboratory atMonloPark. For two years, he says, the] worked on the four-hour sleep schedule, and , "it did not seem to hurt them." Thconlj variation in their habits was tho eating'oi four instead of threo meals a day, an extra supper being served at midnight. For tho first week or so the men showed up very tired and limp, but after that thoy gained in montal alertness and bodily agility. Edison calls attention to tho fact that on this plan the men slept perfectly when they were in bed, whereas, in tho ordinary plan of eight or ton hours in bod, ho believes that most people aro not sound asleep and dreamless for the whole period. Ho also tells how his wife changed' from tho eight-hour to the five-hour plan, with tho best results. Ha questions the accepted ide»' that sloop is required to restore the body.—Science Siftings. ' . .. Tremendous as is the display of power in the number, of ships in tho, North Sea, Britain's demonstration of readiness to use them all efficiently. is oven more impressive. To have sent out this mighty fleet with scratch crows might have been better than nothing. To send it out with ample and ..amply trained complements is an achievement, fit to command tho admiration of the world.—"Daily Tribune," New York.