Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1889 — Blind Fish. [ARTICLE]

Blind Fish.

At the Royal Institution, Professor Ray Lankester accounted for the absence of eyes in the fishes in the famous underground Kentucky caves in the following way: A great flood carries to the bottom of the Kentucky caves, some thirty miles below the surface, a number of fish, among whose numerous offspring will be some defective in sight, as some babies are born blind or without any eyes at all. The fish who can see some faint glimmerings of light will swim away toward that light, while those will remain that cannot perceive the gleams. This with every succeeding generation would occur, the stronger in sight swimming away and the weaker remaining, and as the breeding would therefore occur between those of the worst sight, fish would be born with weaker eyes and weaker until born blind.