登陆注册
14827600000146

第146章

Each additional complexity of structure has caused additional complexityof movements; but still, a definite complexity, as is shown by having calculableresults. §141. While the Earth's surface was molten, the currents in the voluminousatmosphere surrounding it, mainly of ascending heated gases and of descendingprecipitated liquids, must have been local, numerous, indefinite, and butlittle distinguished from one another. But when after a vast period the surface,now solidified, had so far cooled that solar radiation began to cause appreciabledifferences of temperature between the equatorial and polar regions, an atmosphericcirculation from poles to equator and from equator to poles, must have slowlyestablished itself: other vast moving masses of air becoming, at last, trade-windsand other such permanent definite currents. These integrated motions, oncecomparatively homogeneous, were rendered heterogeneous as great islands andcontinents arose, to complicate them by periodic winds, caused by the variedheating of wide tracts of land at different seasons. Rhythmical motions ofa constant and simple kind, were, by increasing multiformity of the Earth'ssurface, differentiated into an involved combination of constant and recurrentrhythmical motions, joined with smaller motions that are irregular.

Parallel changes must have taken place in the motions of water. On a thincrust, admitting of but small elevations and depressions, and therefore ofbut small lakes and seas, none beyond small local circulations were possible.

But along with the formation of continents and oceans, came the vast movementsof water from warm latitudes to cold and from cold to warm -- movements increasingin amount, in definiteness, and in variety of distribution, as the featuresof the Earth's surface became larger and more contrasted. The like holdswith drainage waters. The tricklings of insignificant streams over smalltracts of land, were once alone possible; but as fast as wide areas cameinto existence, the motions of many tributaries became massed into the motionsof great rivers; and instead of motions very much alike, there arose motionsconsiderably varied.

Nor can we well doubt that the changes in the Earth's crust itself, havepresented an analogous progress. Small, numerous, local, and like one another,while the crust was thin, the movements of elevation and subsidence must,as the crust thickened, have extended over larger areas, must have continuedfor longer eras in the same directions, and must have been made more unlikein different regions by local differences of structure. §142. In organisms the advance towards a more integrated, heterogeneous,and definite distribution of the retained motion, which accompanies the advancetowards a more integrated, heterogeneous, and definite distribution of thecomponent matter, is mainly what we understand as the development of functions.

All active functions are either sensible movements, as those produced bycontractile organs; or such insensible movements as those propagated throughnerves; or such insensible movements as those by which, in secreting organs,molecular re-arrangements are effected, and new combinations of matter produced.

And during evolution functions, like structures, become more consolidatedindividually, as well as more combined with one another, at the same timethat they become more multiform and more distinct.

The nutritive juices in animals of low types move hither and thither throughthe tissues quite irregularly, as local strains and pressures determine: in the absence of a true blood and a distinct vascular system, there is nodefinite circulation. But along with the structural evolution which establishesa good apparatus for distributing blood, there goes on the functional evolutionwhich establishes large and rapid movements of blood, definite in their coursesand definitely distinguished as efferent and afferent, and that are heterogeneousboth in their directions and in their characters: being here divided intogushes and there continuous.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 九品全能高手

    九品全能高手

    男人,当醒掌天下权,当醉卧花下。男人,当俯视苍生,不惧鬼神。当傲骨铮铮,浩气长存。
  • 种田第一妃

    种田第一妃

    她,白嬅诗,是25世纪2525年的一个非常有名的农业技术专家,对于在研究农作物非常有一手,为这个因为末世之后土地变少,粮食贫困的年代带来了巨大的奉献,可是她为了保护新研究出来的粮食种子和而牺牲在了2280星球的外星人手里,穿越到了一个架空朝代——平安大陆,开始了她的新生活......他,朴秋离,是平安大陆有名的战神王爷,从十二岁开始带领士兵打仗、退敌,让平安大陆其他国家的人都闻风丧胆,不敢再来侵犯,但是在他十五岁带兵回朝时,他竟然被追杀,纵身跳下了山崖......(推荐新文:替嫁茶女:妖孽夫君,不好惹,欢迎大家来支持,收藏和阅读)
  • 帝吾皇尊

    帝吾皇尊

    那一天开始,这片大陆迎来了新曙光,是痛苦,是绝望,还是……
  • 姐妹穿越凌乱手册

    姐妹穿越凌乱手册

    “公子,看你长得甚美,我想与你谈情说爱。”“怪不害臊的。”“呃,……”如果一开始告白就错了怎么办?如果穿越千年,却找错了人,怎么办?“息沿息沿白息沿!”“我说今晚我要跟你睡!”“息沿你如果敢不来找我,我转头就跟别的男子跑了,气死你,让你抱憾终身!”“息沿你不觉得殉情是一件很唯美的事么?……”我顿时惊醒,浑身冷汗津津。这是关于一场五个女孩的穿越,一段前世情感的纠葛。且看她擒王爷,杀皇帝,斗丞相,倾世子……上得皇城出得蛮荒,逗比里面放爱情,够酸爽!而这一切,不过源于异世之人一段恋恋不忘的爱情,招魂布阵,枯等成灰。
  • 小姐这是21世纪

    小姐这是21世纪

    明朝公主芸晗,在和亲的路上劫财又被杀害,莫名其妙穿越到21世纪的现代,对现代事物一无所知,被人当成车祸后的傻子,但交到了一个非常好的朋友,和爱自己的男友,却一件件奇怪的事情发生,是自己倒霉还是步入了一件件算计之中……
  • 求财风水一点通

    求财风水一点通

    风水大师手把手教您学会购房、装修、布局中的居家风水诀窍。风水理论+精选样板+健康小贴士+吉方位=打造招财纳福、人居两旺的居家空间。
  • 四岁奶娃妖孽夫

    四岁奶娃妖孽夫

    一个约四岁的小奶娃很不幸的被家人抛弃,又很不幸的被人直接掳走。原本以为会就这样完结一生。但素,咱们的小奶娃又很幸运的被人华丽丽滴救下,然后又很华丽丽滴招揽了一大群帅锅。(本文纯属虚构,请勿模仿。)
  • 重生十五岁

    重生十五岁

    你还记得自己15岁的样子吗?是短了不能短的短发,宽宽松松的运动裤,L码的T恤,还有一张永远打瞌睡的忧郁脸,写不完的作业和理不清的思绪....如果有时光机,我最想回到2005年。我想好好学习,努力成为更好的人。
  • 无极仙皇

    无极仙皇

    仙门分七彩,一彩一重天,踏仙门,聚法力,是为化灵。化灵之上有灵海,灵海之内纳神通,又称神通之海。掌神通,历百劫,结百劫金丹,历千劫,结千劫金丹……金丹之后,凝神纹,结圣胎,筑仙台,开仙路……少年江林,为寻父母,踏上修炼之路,偶得异宝,开辟常人所不能的人身三海,结旷古绝今“十世大金丹”,豪情万丈踏破无极仙路!“我这一生不要平淡,不是埋于黄土,就要踏上绝巅!”
  • Doctor Thorne

    Doctor Thorne

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。