110 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



take the word instinct here in its strictest meaning, as sig- 

 nifying a complicated reaction that is perfect the very first 

 time, and I take this opportunity to remind you once more 

 of the fundamental problems of the doctrine of instincts, 

 relating to the possibility of their regulability and to their 

 being called forth by individualised stimuli. 



Experience in insects, of course, though of a far less 

 high degree if compared with human experience, may in 

 spite of that be of a very different character, and may relate 

 to very different occurrences that are experienced. Thus it 

 might be possible, as we have said already, that bees are 

 able to remember the absolute amount and direction of a 

 change of their localisation in space ; that in fact would 

 be something of which man can be said to have only a very 

 shadowy idea. 



The Lowest Forms of Acting 



Let us close our present discussions with a few words 

 about the most inferior kinds of experience. 



Psychologically, as we know, the most simple case of 

 remembering occurs by the mere observation of " sameness," 

 that is, in noticing that a certain stimulus is the same as 

 a former one. It would hardly be possible to prove 

 objectively the existence of this sort of experience in 

 organisms ; there may very likely be something of this sort 

 when an animal reacts quicker to a certain stimulus the 

 second time than the first. 1 



The second step, or rather the second foundation of 



1 Compare the experiment on Daphnids, carried out by Davenport and 

 Cannon, Journ. of Physiol. 21, 1897. 



