Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/182

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170
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

American mechanical mind turned in the direction of our need, and we will not fear for the future of our business.

"We would urge upon the manufacturing potters that more thought be given to this subject, and that they come in closer touch with the best machinists of our several centers. Let the practical machinist know our need. Much can be done; much must be done if we expect to hold our own. And what is our own? The American market for American manufacturers."

Note.—Several of the illustrations which appear in this paper are from pen-and-ink drawings made from the original porcelains by Mr. Vernon Howe Bailey, a student at the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, Philadelphia.

[To be continued.]

PROGRESS AND PERFECTIBILITY IN THE LOWER ANIMALS.

By Prof. E. P. EVANS.

WHAT we call institutions are only organized and hereditary instincts, and are common to man and the lower animals. The original social character of animals, which forms the basis of their institutions, is also the quality that renders them capable of domestication. Man simply takes advantage of this quality, and turns it to his own account by bringing the animal into his own domestic circle and service and making it a member of his household.

In birds, for example, the conjugal instinct is remarkably strong, or, as we would say in speaking of human relations, the institution of marriage, either in its monogamous or polygamous form, is firmly established and highly developed, and forms the foundation of a well-ordered domestic and social life.

The paternal fox trains his young with as much care and conscientiousness as any human father; the beaver constructs his habitation with the foresight of a military engineer and the skill of an experienced architect; the bee lives in well-regulated communities, forms states, and founds colonies; and the ant not only cultivates the soil, plants crops, gathers in the fruits of his labor and stores them for future use, and keeps other insects as domestic cattle, but shares also the vicious propensities and domineering disposition of man, waging war on creatures of his own species and holding his prisoners as slaves.

These habits or customs have the same origin and character in the lower animals as in man, being in both cases products of evolution and undergoing modifications from generation to generation. Animal, not less than human, societies are governed by