THE ABSENCE OF WHEELS IN NATURE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,-Surely all animal locomotion is effected by means of wheel action modified to suit the special conditions ? Legs and arms move on wheels fixed to rotate backwards or forwards within 180 degrees limit, so as to secure horizontal stability, and the eggs of birds are wheels so as the more readily to be moved into due incubatory position. The spherical everywhere is simply a wheel of self-adjustable axis, and so fruits and seeds, when shaken from the parent plant, automatically roll wheel-like into some chance receptacle where they are safe and the future of the species assured. To me it seems that Nature, animate and inanimate alike, is actually built and founded upon wheels, from the sublime procession of the planets to the whirling of the thistledown over
the meadows.---I am, Sir, &c., W. FLETCHER.
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