i 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



stinctive faculties ; every thing seems to be instinct with the insects, 

 and, if Cuvier's idea be adopted, it ought in general to be very poorly 

 endowed as regards intelligence. "We shall presently see that the truth 

 is completely the reverse. 



Besides, Cuvier had no very accurate knowledge of insects, which 

 in his classification he degraded to a place below molluscs. We cannot 

 address the same reproach to M. Emile Blanchard, who pursues the 

 natural history of articulated animals, at the Jardin des Plantes. We 

 regret keenly that in his late work on the " Transformations, Habits, 

 and Instincts of Insects," he has not thought fit to follow the sugges- 

 tions of such a title, and to dwell a little on that twofold subject of 

 intelligence and instinct which would gain by being clearly stated. 

 His usual studies and the direction of his labors enable M. Blanchard 

 better than any one else to complete a blank which must be supposed 

 one of choice only, in his work. The learned professor of the museum 

 goes on from Cuvier's starting-point with him, and, with Flourens in his 

 last work ("Comparative Psychology," 1865), M. Blanchard distin- 

 guishes instinct from intelligence, but he stops there. He makes no at- 

 tempt whatever to measure the reciprocal influence of these two kinds 

 of faculties in the very complex acts of insect-life ; and, above all, he 

 refrains from the study of their intelligence, full of interest as it is. 

 " Individuals of the same species," he says, " always perform the same 

 works without having learned any thing ; instinct alone guides them." 

 Yet, together with this instinct, as M. Blanchard himself admits, there 

 are faculties of intellect, which offer greater difficulties of study by 

 reason of the existence of those instinctive faculties. These very dif- 

 ficulties make the study more worthy of attention. How are the two 

 classes of faculties combined ? If that winged mite had nothing but 

 the instincts that urge it, those alone would make it interesting ; how 

 is that interest increased, when in that tiny body instinct is paired 

 with reflection that analyzes sensations, and will that determines move- 

 ments ! what a study might we find in these intellectual faculties 

 used by so perfect an instinct ! Does it not become indispensable to 

 measure these faculties exactly in the case in which instinct is most 

 developed ? Suppose we were to find, contrary to Cuvier's opinion, 

 that instinct, far from being inversely proportioned to the degree of 

 intelligence, is just the reverse, and is greater, according as intelli- 

 gence is more active. 



This really is the truth, and it is important to fix this first point 

 clearly in the study of instinct. Human inferiority in point of instinct 

 is perhaps only apparent, since education hardly allows us to guess 

 what we should be without it. We know from the history of more 

 than one child found wild in the woods, especially from that of the 

 idiot boy so well studied by Itard, what amazing instincts may be dis- 

 played by a human creature, even one absolutely without understand- 

 ing, when abandoned to itself. Among all animals, insects are assuredly 



