314 G. V. HAMILTON 



B. Female Tendencies 



(a) Tendency to lure a female enemy to attack by assuming 

 the female sexual position. 



My analysis of the material from which the thirty observations 

 recorded in the preceding pages were taken, at first inclined me 

 toward a classification in which there would appear only the 

 three general tendencies that appear in the above table, viz. : 

 (1) A tendency to seek sexual satisfaction, (2) A tendency to 

 assume the female sexual position as a defensive measure, (3) A 

 tendency to lure enemies to attack by assuming the female 

 sexual position. Had this scheme of classification been adopted, 

 lists of the typical expressions of each of these three tendencies 

 would have been given instead of the lists of specific tendencies 

 that appear in the table. But the viewpoint from which I have 

 come to regard animal and human behavior, taken inclusively, 

 as material for a separate branch of natural science which may 

 be made to serve as an important foundation for various applied 

 sciences finally induced me to adopt the method of classification 

 that appears above. According to my view, the behavior of an 

 organism is the expression of reactive tendencies which have 

 specific representation in its structure. Some of these tendencies 

 have an inherent structural representation, such as, e.g., the 

 tendency that finds expression in the kitten's spit and slap when 

 it first encounters the dog-odor — behavior which may be observed 

 in a kitten before its eyes are opened, and which cannot be attribu- 

 ted to the modifying effects of any previous experiences. Other 

 tendencies owe their existence to two factors, viz.: (1) An 

 inherent capacity for post-natal structural modifications by 

 experience; these modifications by their appearance, add the 

 tendencies of which they are the appropriate bases to the list of 

 the organism's properties. (2) The operation of environmental 

 influences that help to produce the necessary structural changes. 

 Any habit-reaction may be regarded as the expression of an 

 acquired tendency of this kind. 



My conception of behavior as. reducible to expressions of 

 specific reactive tendencies might easily lead to an endless 

 multiplication of such tendencies to account for the apparently 

 innumerable separate modes of organic activity — especially in 

 view of the possibilities afforded by the extreme plasticity of the 

 nervous system — if it did not include something more than the 



