122 Studies in Animal Behavior 



regarded as something unalterably fixed, machine- 

 like and practically perfect in its adaptation to the 

 needs of the animal; intelligence was recognized as 

 the antithesis of all these qualities variable, plas- 

 tic and eminently fallible. With the establishment 

 of the theory of evolution writers became more 

 disposed to discover the kinship and filiation of in- 

 stinct! and intelligence and they have given us a 

 variety of views as to the relation of these facul- 

 ties. 



Basing his theory on Lamarck's doctrine that in- 

 stinct is inherited habit, G. H. Lewes attempted 

 to explain instinct as "lapsed intelligence." Per- 

 formances which are learned with difficulty come, 

 after sufficient repetition, to be carried out auto- 

 matically and without any intelligent 1 guidance. If 

 the acquired facility of performing these acts is 

 inherited and the acts are repeated generation after 

 generation, it is probable that they might finally 

 be performed by an individual without any previ- 

 ous instruction at all; that is, they would become 

 instinctive. An animal's instincts, according to this 

 view, represent the stereotyped and mechanized be- 

 havior which its ancestors found to be profitable; 

 their adaptiveness rests upon the wisdom acquired 

 by ancestral experience. More recently this view 

 has been upheld by Eimer, and in a less extreme form 

 by Romanes, Wundt and many others. 



One difficulty with the theory of lapsed intelli- 

 gence is that it involves the acceptance of the doc- 



