The Study O, Life.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 11997, 4 September 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Study O, Life.

1 A PHOFfeSSOR AT WORK. *• i'L\ CnillS l'()st."> , A professorial work' The idea' is I somewhat novel to those popple jnmgI innig a college professor as a" eorV of wrm-chair philosopher, a penpktetjto emyUopacuia, a living library or less useless information, worm and a writer of books 1 that nobody reads—Anything, in fact, but w liat ,the professor really is. The. popular iconecpuon of tlm man is hopelessly out ot date. It 'has' becu uounshed on venerable faction,, and recalls the professor and other autocrats at the breakfast tablej to the exclusion ot the sticnuous investigator ,in tho laboratory and .the enthusiastic caponcut in the leutuxe rrotai. * v \ TAu Professor ii B. Kirk, of Viitona. G*,llege,t fur instance, Under w hose, guidance-tthe student threads tl»o inuze ot and \ learns, so faryis science can tell, the causes of things in lite on this planet. A representative of The I'oat found) him in Ins laboratory ui> lite college one > afternoon patiently tracing >throughi a highpovter microscope, the evolutidn-of lowest fonns." of; life—the breaking'up of primitive cells—such « manner *ttf breeding as tlie.pr,ohhc microbe exhibits. A at then process suggested a question «s tu <\>liether the darwinian, theory .btill in the \Gcientifio trorld. i < i. i- I'V. i, I - - * "Oh, yc&," implied, the s professor, "it is inorejfirmU established, 'than e\ ci. There, have been, o£ course; ,«*r» f-»iu alteratiousilftud ilnodificjations,, nut the principles awi ■•not BerHiuslyrqiiwltionc<l look at a ffe» % examples!." i ' >- 1 Some of the exatnnle« uere in bottles, others in mounted skeletons atraV separate bones, others in plaster cants/ knd others again 4»il microscopic slides. was a weird experience to sec, »8' it were, behind the,scenes of life, tri'-lodic n,t the iworks, like a Matchmaker with his magniljing glaBS exdnuuiiig a'ehrouii'neter. ' '>n ' ', ' Th« profestor «xpl»iuril everything ' as he went uloug. Hero was«a f hide- 1 riKi-lookuig white'thing in l a'large jar. It might been 'anything 'td tho lajninu', an>thinti''froni' the appendix \ermiforims"to the horrbrs 'you " v sfeo «<mietime» tit *tHe front/"Window of'a elfomist's «hrin'. ' It aMn- , touij of a blind .worm.' liowWcr, ' a h'»rmWM>.vii 1 *f { < J ro , 't'rrc'. useful as an • xamole *nf the curlie' forms "f life. Tt lied 'n«< bark "bone, of «nurse, but •?** h Intpd fli« " forni w Inch'the' v»s pventvally evolved 'So from the blibd n'orm 1 to ». limprey which' had 'been t caught in the Butt met "try a Miii'ri t\|tb hirsute limbs, who waded in, in the water wliije'j the, 1 (lnpreys, att.i- bed llif>msrlvcs after, the manner of a leet h. «ul dragging\th«?m \v.lh him like \ modem nude "Medusa. Trom the lpmpre>i the frojg then to the various ,toims of eggs'in wlncli the mheiMit similarity <f the first stages in all cieatUrcs was particularly evident i <• t i thy professor, talked of many things of \ estiges of fish <forms in gill apertuies actually jsbowp in the micropcopio tl.d«»s of the <!iickei| nist beginning, to for.ni in tho ,«««.,, x These relics cOmtlioii migiu, ( w v ,ili almost all foim of, life. fl'*r e «tis at genuine appendix vcrmiforutiV in iHvparatiimtor, its proiuotion ,to tliei gallery ~«if things in, jars./ troiii tin; , same legaiii in th<;\ anatomy ot.tlio rabbit, tho sheep, ,£!»?, sdogt »uid thc\lnonkfy wci« LhcnCn. 4 vTlh; l jnppendi.\ nns dear - in the labbit and tile monkey, wjio thus bctome eiit\tle(t"sto, t c)aim a icrtaiit'relatmnslup with njnn Vv - tJt .- Perhaps' most interesting of all was thevfetudj of in Various cteatuies,. l\ is .the professor's" chief, tusk ' to, compare the the different \ types of hvmg irc(»tHres, and tioitajiee ot cpin«H>ra)Li\e anatomy an mideistanding vt.jife around>us,is moie and more iccognised. the brain of ,tho hsJi, tyr instance, showed thri' and .cerebellum, upp*cr ' and lower bram Ki equally larger with.' cerebellum v f ij , prortiinent. , higher animals it,, took a lower'place,* till in the human brain it was: entirely hidden and underneath thei,cerebrum*, rwe, of intellect l.v animal instiucts. , ,v t \ *pi' The evolution, of i.'ihp, horse "lifts'' b^n r ' J,akcn as a t%pical. example of evolution ' in general. The earliest form-kuowV was a hltle animal almut the.sine of"a smal> dog It had h\o digits to each of thp fevt. Then gradually the horse began to grow in size,and T«i discard its hiigcrs. First one w as< dropped or v disappcuied, and then another 'from ' the proeiss ot pattirnl solution". *.- f i&* hoise a thr<-«Mtoed hoof gnrofwa* to the modern bomvin >which* the »riia> die toe or fingej-,haKbe<onie')4he hbiif;' imd the hngers, arc only »• the' 'splint bones by the isidnnd, Thus* part of a horse's >leg is practically Hit' extension and elaboration of "a^ntfnu Or,yfoot |n ' I ) lii this *way, to mi~ andietiCC; of one, appreciative enough the the professoi bne% r euggestcil> t lie cess of evolution. , 'lt'was infecnßpl.Y,'interesting, and vs|weially an idea of ci ofption , has beeti''gained'' from hooks alone 1 " ( s The r bot*leui sections of anatomv, tH©' bones, ihe'lskel!;tons, and the microscope' tliraw a igepiil- - light on what beforeiins beeii'act a aguclj Of v course, ( thertf 'are m<ii)> g.ips in the process;" and. according t> the there nlwrfyu will; N ) b *", but none the less enough, has' been done to make the hypothesis pc>ftf<st!y a»d sitltieioiltly ' Tt hiMild be added''than' the 4 ttfebtineii, iii i us, and the skeleton* and Mite inn io* i oi»u slides J htivo nearly 'all bcCn piepaicd In the prolessjor'nttd his'stiltlents It is a toiiiiliutd'tlclurato pro- 1 -ci. s, letjuiung the r greatest team suie tuceess At present? thcro "is lack ot laboiatorv splire, as tliero.-Tis Jack of inanv other' things" «h «tho"<it>> lege hut ehthiisiasni *n ill tomjutr'niest things The result-,is to' be-r siien * the'work turned out "in"tho sohd J basnj ! ol a knowledge of comparative-am>-'f tomyy useful'pot fonly, to iloctors," but '» to every citizen in 1 a'modern *taw. *<"«■,'• x sssssasssss ><