Omphalos Part 10

Clearly, therefore, we have a right to infer a past history of the Urchin, and that of not a few distinct stages. But no; the specimen has commenced its history within an hour!

Yonder Feather-star (_Comatula_) notice; which, having just now started into mature life at the almighty fiat of its Creator, goes careering joyously through the sea, expanding and contracting its many-jointed and feathery arms, as if it had been accustomed to the alternation for a long life, and ever and anon settling itself by grasping the points of rock with its dorsal claws. You would hardly think that those flexible and slender arms were made of stone: yet they are; every joint of the stems and of their pinnae is a vertebra of stone (precious stones, you will say--topaz and ruby--from their brilliant hues), which has been formed and deposited atom by atom, by the slow and gradual process of secretion of calcareous matter; the lime having been primarily collected from the sea-water which held it in solution. At least, such is the physiological deduction.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COMATULA AND YOUNG.]

But there was a period in the _Comatula's_ history when it was not a free-swimming star, but a lily-like flower of ten slender fringed petals, seated at the summit of a long stalk, with a central columnar axis of stone. Before that, the flower-head had a bud-like figure, and the petals were minute and dest.i.tute of lateral fringes; and earlier still, it was a tiny gelatinous club without any development of stone, affixed by a spreading base, and shooting forth from the top a few pellucid processes. Earlier still, it was, no doubt, an infusory-like gemmule, clothed with cilia.

Through all these successive stages, which, of course, occupied a considerable period of time, we should certainly affirm the Feather-star to have pa.s.sed, did we not know that it has this very hour burst into existence.

That Panther, whose tawny fur studded with black rosettes appeared so beautiful as he bounded with agile grace from glade to glade just as we emerged from the forest, contains within his intestines, though you cannot see it, a mature Tapeworm. The body of this parasite consists of some hundreds of square flattened segments, each of which includes a complicated generative apparatus, equal to the production of thousands of fertile ova. Is not this an evidence of age? For, first of all, consider that the formation of each of these hundreds of joints has been a work of development from the anterior parts; and therefore they record as many distinct and successive processes as there are segments. And, secondly, remember that the _Taenia_ did not commence existence as a _Taenia_, nor in the conditions in which it now exists, within the bowels of the Panther. It looks back to another form, and to another living _nidus_.

There was a time when this parasitic creature had no ribbon-like body of flattened generative segments. There was, indeed, the same curious head, a tiny globose k.n.o.b at the extremity of a slender neck, furnished with the same array as now, of rows of hooks and sucking disks. But in place of the segments, the neck merged into a membranous bladder distended with clear fluid. It was not a _Taenia_ then, but a _Cysticercus_.

Its home was at that time the interior of a living animal on whose vitalized juices it was sustained, but that animal was widely different from its present patron. It was an Antelope, that cropped the wiry gra.s.s and aromatic shrubs of the arid plain.

Earlier still, the germ of this _Taenia_ was an egg lying on the ground, having been discharged from the r.e.c.t.u.m of another Panther, in the bowels of which it had been developed by one of the segments of a former _Taenia_.

Let us now trace the history of this organism onwards from the point at which we have arrived in our retrograde researches.

The parent _Taenia_, still snugly ensconced in its obscene abode, partially matured and then separated the ultimate generative segment, containing many thousands of ova, far advanced towards perfection. The detached segment now became enclosed in the faeces of the Carnivore, and was at length discharged, enveloped in the pellet. The eggs, acquiring maturity, were hatched, and the infant worms individually scattered themselves among the surrounding herbage.[66]

One of these was devoured with the herbage by a grazing Antelope, and having safely escaped the perilous ordeals of mastication and rumination, pa.s.sed into the stomach of that Ruminant, whence it soon made its way by some unknown but unerring route to the liver, in the parenchyma of which organ it rapidly developed the cyst, which gave to the present stage its proper character.

The Antelope fell a prey to the ferocious Cat; its flesh was quickly digested in the stomach, but the gastric juice produced no effect on the _Cysticercus_. This parasite had merely changed its residence for one more commodious, or at least more suitable for its further development. It presently attached itself to the walls of the intestine by means of its oral hooks and suckers, and, getting rid of its vesicular sac, with its fluid contents, probably by absorption, it began to develop, joint by joint, that immense ribbon, which it possesses now, and which const.i.tutes it a Tapeworm.

Such is the "strange eventful history" of this repulsive creature; a history legitimately deducible, in all its stages, from its presently-existing condition. But it is a history altogether illusory.

The _Taenia_ never was a _Cysticercus_: the Panther is as yet guiltless of capricide: it is this moment called into being, and the Tapeworm begins existence within it.

This lump of red sandstone that has been rolled about in the sea, till all its points and angles are worn smooth, is now roughened again by the close and firm adhesion of extraneous substance, in the form of a cl.u.s.ter of sh.e.l.ly pipes, which twine irregularly over the surface of the boulder, and then start up erect with open mouths. These are the tubes of a species of _Serpula_, and the worm itself is seen now slowly emerging from one of them, and introducing its conical stopper, and elegant fans of white and scarlet filaments, to the genial daylight.

Observe, however, that the tubes are not of the same diameter throughout. At the point where they start up from contact with the stone, they are considerably smaller than at the tip; and if we trace back the adherent portion along its tortuous course, we find that it constantly diminishes until it is but a slender white thread of stone.

Now this slender extremity was formed first; and as the worm itself grew, so it progressively required a larger and yet a larger habitation; which was readily provided of the due dimensions, because the material, which is limestone, was secreted by the swollen collar of the worm, and being freely poured out as required, was moulded of the proper calibre by the rotatory motion of the animal, combined with the special use of certain tactile organs for the purpose.

The sh.e.l.ly tubes themselves afford us ocular evidence not only of their progressive formation, but also of the successive steps by which this was effected. For at certain intervals of their length we perceive rings of the common stony substance, which mark the rim or mouth of the tube as it existed after each periodic increase. The mouth of the tube is, as we see, slightly expanded in a trumpet fas.h.i.+on; but as the general cylindrical figure is to be maintained, the next deposit of calcareous matter is not made at the very edge of the lip, but on a ring a little way within the margin, whence it is carried up, leaving the former margin slightly projecting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SERPULA.]

Who could hesitate to a.s.sert that a history of past time is legibly written in the annulations of these stony tubes? And yet the creatures, with their tubes, have been but this instant created.

But here is a tube of quite another construction, though inhabited by a kindred worm. It is wholly built up of sand, the inimitable architecture of the indwelling _Terebella_, who has thus succeeded in performing a task which defied the efforts of that too industrious artizan,--the familiar of the renowned Michael Scott.[67] Our worm has certainly spun a rope of sand, and one which holds together with surprising tenacity.

The instrument which our little architect wrought with are the long tentacles, which, like a tangled tuft of yellow sewing-cotton, twist and twine over the floors of sandy pools. Nothing at first sight seems less adequate for the purpose than those very slender, soft, and flexible threads. Dr. Williams shall tell us how they are used. "They consist of hollow flattened tubular filaments, furnished with strong muscular parietes. The band may be rolled longitudinally into a cylindrical form, so as to inclose a hollow cylindrical s.p.a.ce, if the two edges of the band meet; or a semi-cylindrical s.p.a.ce, if they only imperfectly meet.

This inimitable mechanism enables each filament to take up and firmly grasp, _at any point of its length_, a molecule of sand; or, if placed in a linear series, _a row_ of molecules. But so perfect is the disposition of the muscular fibres at the extreme free end of each filament, that it is gifted with the two-fold power of acting on the sucking and on the muscular principle. When the tentacle is about to seize an object, the extremity is drawn in, in consequence of the sudden reflux of fluid in the hollow interior; by this movement a cup-shaped cavity is formed, in which the object is securely held by atmospheric pressure; this power is, however, immediately aided by the contraction of the circular muscular fibres. Such, then, are the marvellous instruments by which these peaceful worms construct their habitations."[68]

Since the slender tentacles are the implements by which the sand-tube is thus built up, it is manifest that the existence of the tube must be subsequent to the existence of the tentacles. But the _Terebella_ was at one time without tentacles; so that its history certainly reaches back to a date anterior to the existence of a tube. Several stages of life have intervened between that distinguished by the present worm-form, and its infant condition, when it swam as a ciliated undivided monad.

So, at least, we conclude from physiological data; but our conclusions are false, because contradicted by the fact that the mature animal with its case has been just now created.

Let us forsake the ocean-sh.o.r.e, and walk again through the glades of the virgin forest. A White-ant (_Termes_) crosses our path, and, by tracking him home, we speedily discover his dwelling, an enormous structure composed of gnawed wood cemented with an animal secretion, and formed into thin but very firm and hard layers. Swarms of labourers are pa.s.sing in and out; and, on our breaking away a portion of the edifice, out come crowding the warriors, with formidable jaws extended widely, ready for the fight. In the interior we find numerous chambers stored with food, and nurseries occupied by young and eggs, the number of which is every hour increasing by the oviposition of the gravid female,--the queen of the city--who is lodged in an apartment in the very centre of the whole.

The entire edifice has been built around her; she is the hope of the colony, the only mother in this vast a.s.semblage. It is therefore through her that we must look for a past history; and in her we find it.

Some months ago, when she was not more than one thousandth part as large as she is now, though then adult, she migrated from some other city not less populous than this is now. It was just before the periodical rains, when, at the time of the great annual swarming, myriads of winged males and females were evolved from the pupa state, and flew out from their native city. This individual female was found by some of the workers that now compose this colony, and was immediately selected to be at once their prisoner and their queen.

We thus trace our great egg-laying Termes to a city of last year's building, in which for a time she was in an immature condition as a nymph, and before that pa.s.sed a still less-developed stage as a larva.

Hence her life-history goes yet farther back to an egg, originally laid by a former female in exactly the same circ.u.mstances as those in which we find this guarded and immured individual.

Thus we reason; but the female, with her host of attendants, and the house, which is inseparable from their present stage of existence, has been created to-day.

See that creature which with loud ringing hum is whirling round and round the ta.s.sel-like blossoms of this n.o.ble _Eugenia_. You would think it a bird from its ma.s.sive size, but it flashes and sparkles in the sun, like a great jewel. Now it suddenly alights on one of the crimson flowers, and you may perceive that it is a beetle;--a beetle of vast size, and glittering like a lump of burnished metal;--it bears the name of Goliath,--a giant clad in polished armour.

This is his first hour of existence; now for the first time has his nervous system responded to the stimulus of the sweet air and genial suns.h.i.+ne. An hour ago he had no nervous system; no system of any sort; no life; no being; no anything;--he was not until this hour.

Yet if we were to ask a friend conversant with entomology his opinion on the age of this insect, he would immediately give it; not, however, as an opinion, for he would repudiate the uncertainty which such a word implies, but as an indubitable fact, resting on the infallible grounds of constant observation and undeviating experience.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GOLIATH BEETLE, AND PUPA CASE.]

"This fine _Goliathus_," he would say, "has not long, probably, emerged from a hollow case of oval form, made of particles of earth agglutinated together by a secretion from the mouth of the larva, and concealed under the surface of the ground. Within that sepulchre it has left its cerements,--the shrivelled skin of the pupa, in which it had been wrapped up motionless like a mummy, for several weeks prior to its appearance as a glittering beetle. The construction of the oval cell was the last act of the larva, a thick, ma.s.sy, heavy-bodied grub, which had fattened for years by feeding on the roots of plants beneath the soil.

Four years pa.s.sed away[69] while yon beetle lay on its side, darkly labouring at this occupation; and before that it was a minute egg for some weeks. The specimen before us cannot be far short of five years old."

No such thing: the witness is at fault: the _Goliathus_ is not _an hour_ old.

Take notice of the swarm of Gnats, which, like a dim cloud, are uniting in choral dance and song in the beam of the setting sun. Every member of the band that "winds his shrill horn," has had an aquatic before he had an aerial existence. A week was spent, in lobster-shape, with two breathing tubes on the summit of his body, in pa.s.sing alternately from the bottom to the top of yonder stagnant pool, and then back from the top to the bottom. And a month was occupied in pretty nearly the same employment, but in another mask,--in fish-like form, with the star-tipped breathing-tube projecting from the side of the tail. But for some months earlier still it was a little lenticular egg, which was agglutinated with a number of others into an oval concave boat, that floated to and fro on the surface of the pool.

And there was something worth observing in that tiny skiff of eggs; for it did, in its artful construction, carry the evidence of time back to a former generation. The eggs individually and separately would have sunk to the bottom of the water; it was, however, essential to their life that they should be in contact with the air as well as with the water.

Hence they were so arranged in the aggregate, that the ma.s.s should swim, though the const.i.tuent individuals could not. To effect this, the parent Gnat, resting on the calm surface of the pool, crossed her two hind legs, and laid an egg perpendicularly in the angle so made: others were added in succession, all maintaining the perpendicular position, all glued together by a cement that resists water, but so arranged, the crossed legs being still the mould, that the outline should be spindle-shaped, while the summits of the central eggs, being a little lower than those of the outer ones, gave a concavity to the boat. So buoyant was it when finished, and the mother's legs withdrawn, that even a drop of water falling full upon it from above, would have failed to submerge it. There it floated, week after week, and month after month, all through the winter, till the genial sun of spring hatched the fish-like larvae to begin their wriggling existence beneath the surface.

Now may we not say with confidence, that the sounding-winged insect looks back to the pupa, the pupa to the larva, the larva to the egg-boat? And more, that the form of the boat,--a form so essential that it could not have lived without it,--looked back to the crossed feet of the mother-gnat, the impress of whose angle its extremities sustained?

Of course we might reason thus: but yet we should be at fault; for the ringing swarm of merry Gnats has been this very evening created.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LARVA OF CASE-FLY.]

The Case-flies (_Phryganea_) that look like delicate moths of sober-brown hue, flitting over the surface of the pond, have, like the Gnats, spent a considerable time under water. When they were larvae, they industriously collected small sh.e.l.ls, fragments of stone, bits of reed, and the like matters, and, connecting them together with strong silk, made out of them slender tubes, in which they sheltered their soft bodies from harm, while their hard polished heads and shoulders projected from the open end. And after having lived through the winter (at least, but I rather think more than _one_ winter) in this state, each closed up the entrance of his castle, by spinning across its open end, a transverse screen of lattice-work, made of very strong and stout silk, which, while it should serve the purpose of keeping out evil-minded intruders, during the helpless inaction of the pupa, should at the same time admit the free ingress and egress of water necessary for its respiration.

The life of the larva, and the exercise of these, its curious instincts, are, together with the duration of the pupa stage, inseparable precedents of the imago state in which we now observe the flying insects. No, not "inseparable;" for in this case, at least, they had no existence in time; they are prochronic developments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MELICERTA.]

In this pond at our feet there is an object worthy of a moment's observation, minute though it is, for it is only visible as a speck to the una.s.sisted eye. On one of the whorl-filaments of this tuft of _Myriophyllum_, there stands up a cylindrical tube, firmly adherent to the plant by its foot, but free at its upper end. Small as it is, this chimney is built up of hundreds of pellets, solid, round, and yellow; placed in symmetrical order, and firmly cemented together. What has made this tube? Ha! here is the little architect ready to answer for himself; he thrusts out his head and shoulders from his chimney-top, and announces his scientific cognomen as _Melicerta ringens_.

Look! he is in the very act of building now. Did you see him suddenly bow down his head and lay a brick on the top of the last course? And now he is busy making another brick; his mould is a tiny cup-shaped cavity just below his chin; his material the floating floccose atoms of vegetable refuse. Cilia along his flower-like face collect these atoms into a stream, and pour them into the cup; and cilia within the cup whirl them rapidly round and round in many rotations, until with the aid of mucus they are somewhat consolidated into a round pellet. The brick is made, and nothing remains but that it be deposited next the former, in regular progression, and this is done by the tiny [Greek: tekton], suddenly bending his head forward, and bringing the chin-cup with exact precision to the spot.

And how long has he been engaged in this piece of work? Little more than a day. It was commenced yesterday, when the creature was not more than one-third as large as he is now. But he had lived a few hours before the commencement of his work. He was a rover before he began to be a house-keeper. In that early stage of youth and freedom, before he had made up his mind to settle in life, he had no chin-cup, no flower-like face, and of course no tube. A cylindrical gelatinous pellucid worm, he issued out of the egg, with a brush of cilia on his crown, and danced waywardly through the water. While thus occupied, his form underwent some preliminary modifications, and at length was sufficiently matured, to enable him to choose a spot for the pa.s.sing of his future life, and to commence the building on which he is still engaged.

Not so. The pellet which he deposited when we began to look at him, was the first he had ever made; he had been created but that moment; and all the previous pellets of the case had been called into being just as we saw them. They were built up prochronically.