PuENELL. — On True Instincts of Animals. 33 



cycle of the human being. Therefore, if it be the case that 

 the insect possesses the power of inheriting memories, we can 

 understand how the memory of an inherited habit, useful and 

 common to one phase of the animal's existence, may readily 

 be transmitted from the perfect insect to its offspring through 

 the various stages of that offspring's existence. The order 

 in which these memories are transmitted will be the order 

 in which they will manifest themselves in the new life- 

 cycle. The question therefore is, Does the Thekla possess the 

 power of transmitting the memory of that habit to which I 

 have referred? Is it possible for a habit like this to become 

 so ingrained in the mental constitution of the insect as to 

 be capable of transmission from parent to offspring, in like 

 manner to that in which the bodily structure is transmitted? 

 It appears not unreasonable to suppose that such may be the 

 case. The hfe of an insect is short and monotonous, and its 

 range of locomotion hmited. Its world is a small world — a 

 fragment of the larger world in which man lives and moves 

 and has his being ; there is little scope for variation of habit, 

 and the insect's habits of life must consequently tend to be- 

 come stereotyped. Therein it differs from the higher animals, 

 wdiose mental powers are kept active and mobile by being 

 constantly exercised upon fresh subjects. As the mental 

 nature of the animal grows more complex, instincts become 

 more rare, because the animal exercises more choice in its 

 actions. Even the minds of human beings, however, when 

 kept within too narrow grooves, are apt to become largely 

 mechanical in their actions, as is evidenced by certain Eastern 

 nations, which follow tiie same habits and customs as were 

 followed by their forefathers thousands of years ago. If, 

 then, any particular habit became stereotyped upon the 

 animal's mental system fof course, I use the term " stereo- 

 typed " in a strictly metaphorical sense, and for the purpose 

 of rendering my meaning clearer) it would be transmitted 

 from generation to generation in the same manner as the 

 other mental qualities of the race were transmitted ; for, 

 whatever view we may take of the nature of mind, it cannot 

 be denied that animals of the same race exhibit similar 

 mental capacities ; and hence we must conchide that the 

 offspring owes its mental constitution to its parents just as 

 much as it owes its bodily constitution to them, although the 

 environment of any individual may develope mental as well as 

 bodily peculiarities in that individual. Nor would the fact 

 that the Tliehla butterfly is the offspring of two parents affect 

 the matter, because the habit or instinct above mentioned is 

 common to both, and hence w'ould be transmitted by both. 



The fact that the nervous system of the Invertebrata is 

 fundamentally different from that of the Vertebrata is full of 

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