1899] THE ANIMAL MIND 3 



Prof. Thorndike thinks that too much stress has been laid on the 

 definiteness of instinctive response, saying that the same stimulus does 

 not always produce exactly the same effect in all individuals. But 

 much depends on the meaning of the phrase " the same stimulus." It 

 is at least possible that some part of the difference in response is due 

 to slight difference in the stimuli and the " situation." But there are, 

 no doubt, also differences in the individual characters of the birds (as 

 all observers will be ready to admit) which lead to divergences of 

 behaviour under quite similar circumstances. In any case the obser- 

 vations which Mr. Thorndike here describes were well worth placing 

 on record. 



The Art of Self-Defence. 



In the struggle for existence plants have specialised along the line of 

 passive resistance. It is by this method, as Professor Stahl showed 

 long since, in his famous essay on " Pflanzen und Schnecken," that 

 many are saved from snails whose appetite is spoiled by the bitters 

 and alkaloids which many plants contain, and in half a dozen other 

 ways. Dr. Bokorny has worked out the same idea in reference 

 to fungi, pointing out that there are many common vegetable sub- 

 stances which are almost fungus -proof, and that is saying a good 

 deal. In his essay {Biol. Centralbl. xix. 1899, pp. 177-185) he shows 

 how the self-preservation of plants against fungi is secured by stuffs 

 like tannin, oxalic acid, ethereal oils, the lupulit of hops, and so on. 

 He gives his thesis greater solidity by a table of the more important 

 vegetable substances, their occurrence, and their relation to bacteria 

 and other fungi. It must of course be borne in mind that this indica- 

 tion of a secondary advantage should in no wise be allowed to make us 

 more sluggish in trying to find out the primary physiological import of 

 these results of metabolism. 



Trustees of the British Museum. 



No one need quarrel with the latest election to the Honourable Board 

 of Trustees of the British Museum, in the places of the late Baron 

 Ferdinand Eothschild and Charles Drury Fortnum. The Hon. Walter 

 Eothschild is a keen zoologist on a spacious plan, and one who has 

 never allowed the interests of his own admirably worked museum at 

 Tring to conflict with the friendship he so frequently displays for the 

 Natural History Museum. Sir Henry Howorth is known to our readers, 

 not merely as a learned historian of human and pre-human times, but 

 as an enthusiast on matters of museum arrangement and equipment. 

 A little keenness is a welcome leaven in a body of men appointed for 

 the most part for any reason other than interest in museum matters. 



