THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF INSTINCT. Des cartes denied to animals the power of reason, re garding them as automata. and held that instincts were implanted in them by the Creator; and this view is still held by Fabre and Wasmann, both distinguished as observers of the instincts of insects. That instincts are variable and are sometimes at fault was affirmed by Reimarus (1773). Ile says: "Alany mechanical instincts are practiced from birth without experience, in struction, or example, and yet faultlessly. They are thus seen to be certainly inborn and inherit ed." See INSECT.
The first thinker to point out the evolutionary origin of instinct was Lamarck, whose view, briefly stated, is that instincts are the sum of inherited habits.
Darwin's view is that instincts were "slowly acquired through natural selection." Do ANIMALS POSSESS INTELLIGENCE, AND Do THEY REASON? In view of what has been said by physiologists- and experimenters, it results that we must proceed cautiously, and not anthro pomorphize as regards the reasoning powers of the higher animals, and, even if we are compelled to give up cherished opinions as to the intelli gence and so-called reasoning powers attributed to animals, suspend our judgment and wait for the results of further observation and experi ment. :Aleanwhile the reader may adopt the views of so careful and well-trained a student of animal behavior as Lloyd :Morgan. In observing that the chick under his observation rapidly profited by experience, after a few practical trials, he concludes that intelligence is founded on experience. One important test of intelli gence is the power of making a choice, and this appears to be the basis of intelligent adaptation to circumstances. Intelligence involves the asso ciation of impressions and ideas, and it implies a power of control over the motor responses. (Introduction to Comparative Psychology, p• 215.) In his last work on the sensations of insects Forel claims that instincts depend on sense-per ception. An ant which had suffered deantenniza, tion abandoned and neglected its pupa. Instinct, lie says, does not constitute all the mentality of an ant. lie attributes to them a mind. Be sides instincts, lie sees in them 'small plastic judgments;' they display in their actions new combinations which differ from their usual au tomatism. aiding them to overcome difficulties,
to make a choice between two alternatives. He remarks that the faculty of direction in bees, their astonishing memory for places, proves how far mere instinct and automatism are from con stituting all the mental life of insects. He thus opposes the new German school, who, with Bettie. would, he says. suppress all psychology, all `anthropocentrism,' in studies on the behavior of animals.
Young animals are taught by their parents, and what appears to be instinct is the result of early education. We know that young birds are taught to fly, that foxes and other beasts of prey teach their young to hunt, how to escape from their enemies, or to fear them. We know that young animals are more easily trapped than the older and more experienced ones. All this is a proof of an inborn capability of learning by example and by experience; and this carries us back to Erasmus Darwin's idea that instincts are based on imitation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Lamarck, Philosophic zooloBibliography. Lamarck, Philosophic zoolo- gigue (Paris, 1809) ; Darwin, Origin of Species; Spencer, Principles of Psychology (London, 1855).; Principles of Biology (New York, 1866 71) : Wallace, Darwinism; Alurphy, Habit and Intelligence (2 vole., London, 1869) ; Schneider, Der tierische WiIle (Leipzig, 1880) ; Preyer, Die Seele des Kindes (1SS2); Romane., Animal Intelligence (New York, 1883) ; id., Mental Evo lution in Animals, with a Posthumous Essay on Instinct by C. Darwin (New York, 1884) ; Eimer, Organic Erolution (18851 London, trans. by CUB Hingham, 1890) ; Weismann, Papers on Heredity (Eng. trans., London, 1899) ; Alo•gan, Animal Life and Intelligence (London, 1890-91) ; id., Animal Behavior (London, 190(1) ; .4n Intro duction to Comparative Psychology (New York. 1901) ; Groos, The Play of Animals (New York. 1898) ; Loeb. Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative, Psychology (New York. 1902) : Fond, Sensations des inscctes (Paris, 1902) ; and the writings of Alix, Aubert-Delage, Bettie, Bantning, Batteldteepen, Cherechewsky, Delage, Mach, Packard. Rodl. lleynand, Ver•orn, etc. See ANT; BEE; EVOLUTION; HEREDITY.