INSTINCT. 127 



us to affirm positively that they have this instinct/ Denying the facts, 

 however, was not Mr. Mill's mode of saving the theory. He was rather 

 of opinion that the 'animals have to us an inexplicable facility both of 

 finding and selecting the objects which their wants require.' How very 

 inexplicable, he conceives, their mental operations may possibly be, may 

 be gathered from the fact of his suggesting an experiment to ascertain 

 whether a blind duckling might not find the water as readily as one 

 having sight. The position of psychologists of the too purely analytical 

 school, however, is not that the facts of instinct are inexplicable; but 

 that they are incredible. This view is set out most explicitly in the 

 article on 'instinct' in 'Chambers's Encyclopaedia.' Thus: 



" It is likewise said that the chick recognizes grains of corn at first sight, 

 and can so direct its movements as to pick them up at once; being thus able to 

 know the meaning of what it sees, to measure the distance of objects instinct- 

 ively, and to graduate its movements to that knowledge — all which is, in the 

 present state of our acquaintance with the laws of mind, wholly incredible." 



And it is held that all the supposed examples of instinct may be — for 

 anything that has yet been observed to the contrary — nothing more than 

 cases of rapid learning, imitation or instruction. 



Thus it would appear that with regard to instinct we have yet to 

 ascertain the facts. With a view to this end, I have made many obser- 

 vations and experiments, mostly on chickens. The question of instinct, 

 as opposed to acquisition, has been discussed chiefly in connection with 

 the perceptions of distance and direction by the eye and the ear. 

 Against the instinctive character of these perceptions it is argued, that 

 as distance means movement, locomotion, the very essence of the idea is 

 such as can not be taken in by the eye or ear; that what the varying 

 sensations and feelings of sight and hearing correspond to, must be got 

 at by moving over the ground — by experience. On the other hand, it is 

 alleged that, though as regards man the prolonged helplessness of in- 

 fancy stands in the way of the observer, we have only to look at the 

 young of the lower animals to see that as a matter of fact they do not 

 require to go through the process of learning the meaning of their sensa- 

 tions in relation to external things; that chickens, for example, run 

 about, pick up crumbs, and follow the call of their mother immediately 

 on leaving the shell. For putting this matter to the test of experiment, 

 chickens, therefore, are most suitable and convenient subjects. I have 

 observed and experimented on more than fifty chickens, taking them 

 from under the hen while yet in the eggs. But of these, not one on 

 emerging from the shell was in a condition to manifest an acquaintance 

 with the qualities of the outer world. On leaving the shell they are wet 

 and helpless; they struggle with their legs, wings, and necks, but are 

 unable to stand or hold up their heads. Soon, however, they may be 

 distinctly seen and felt pressing against and endeavoring to keep in 



