Ohio Archaeological And Historical Publications Vol 16 Classic Reprint

Author : N. S. Shaler
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781332172412
Total Pages : 20 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (724 download)

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Download or read book On the Antiquity of the Caverns and Cavern Life of the Ohio Valley, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint) written by N. S. Shaler and published by . This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from On the Antiquity of the Caverns and Cavern Life of the Ohio Valley, Vol. 1 Cavern animals, always interesting, have acquired an importance quite unexpected by their first students since the questions concerning the origin of organic species assumed their present shape. Whenever we find any animal, especially a highly organized form, living in the perpetual darkness and uniform temperature of a cavern, we are entitled to look for something which marks its departure from the usual conditions of life. If organic forms are the direct product of their environment, then the change from the sunlit upper world to the cavern conditions must lead to modifications of the most important character. These changes have, in fact, been found, and as a general rule, they most affect those parts of the body which are the most directly concerned with the phenomena of the outer world. Organs of sight, or organs which may replace sight, are the most affected. We see here organs like the vertebrate eye, which traces its development down all the infinite ages to the silurian or more ancient seas, fading like a shadow in this darkness. Among insects, where the visual organs are essentially as complicated, and date their origin from a time almost as remote as the vertebrates, we have the same marvellous change, though the known and interminable variation amongst this class of animals makes the phenomena less striking. These changes must be studied in their detail before we shall know their full value. There is one other point, however, to which attention must be called before we come to the main object of our study, viz. how far is this hidden life connected with the life of the outer world in the same neighborhood. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.