i 2 8 THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE

of excretion are removed from within the body of the infant,

are, in our opinion, essentially instinctive. In later life

various other instinctive actions minister directly or indirectly

to reproduction.

It is an instinct which prompts the female child to seek

adornments for her little body, and to fondle a doll, and

even press it against her breast, whence, when fully de-

veloped, her future baby will draw its nourishment. Later

on, when the time for love and courtship has arrived, in-

stinct leads youths and maidens to seek each other's society,

and tends naturally to induce affectionate feelings and

ultimately caresses, each of which acts as a further stimulus,

ultimately leading on towards actions indispensable to the

race.

But instinct, as it exists in man, is very feebly and obscurely

developed, compared with the manifestations of that faculty

which may be met with in various of the lower animals, and

especially amongst insects. Chickens will, very soon after

they are hatched, peck at small objects, grains, and insects,

and but little later will at once perform, when they come in

contact with water, the movements for making it flow over

their backs and fall off. *

Some birds will feign lameness, or some other injury, to

draw off attention from their eggs or young. Birds of the first

year, when the time of migration arrives, are often the earliest

to depart, and duly accomplish their journey, though they can

have no knowledge of the route they have to pursue, or the

region it is the object of their journey to attain.

Snakes taken out of their mother's body just before their

natural birth will even then threaten to strike, and, if rattle-

snakes, to rattle, or at least rapidly vibrate the end of the

tail.

* For an admirable account of such phenomena, see Habit and Instinct, l>y

C. LLOYD MORGAN, F.G.S.

of excretion are removed from within the body of the infant,

are, in our opinion, essentially instinctive. In later life

various other instinctive actions minister directly or indirectly

to reproduction.

It is an instinct which prompts the female child to seek

adornments for her little body, and to fondle a doll, and

even press it against her breast, whence, when fully de-

veloped, her future baby will draw its nourishment. Later

on, when the time for love and courtship has arrived, in-

stinct leads youths and maidens to seek each other's society,

and tends naturally to induce affectionate feelings and

ultimately caresses, each of which acts as a further stimulus,

ultimately leading on towards actions indispensable to the

race.

But instinct, as it exists in man, is very feebly and obscurely

developed, compared with the manifestations of that faculty

which may be met with in various of the lower animals, and

especially amongst insects. Chickens will, very soon after

they are hatched, peck at small objects, grains, and insects,

and but little later will at once perform, when they come in

contact with water, the movements for making it flow over

their backs and fall off. *

Some birds will feign lameness, or some other injury, to

draw off attention from their eggs or young. Birds of the first

year, when the time of migration arrives, are often the earliest

to depart, and duly accomplish their journey, though they can

have no knowledge of the route they have to pursue, or the

region it is the object of their journey to attain.

Snakes taken out of their mother's body just before their

natural birth will even then threaten to strike, and, if rattle-

snakes, to rattle, or at least rapidly vibrate the end of the

tail.

* For an admirable account of such phenomena, see Habit and Instinct, l>y

C. LLOYD MORGAN, F.G.S.