BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH lvl 
Animal Behavior 
Two papers were published by Dr. Whitman on Animal Be- 
havior, one as a Woods Hole lecture, the other in the Monist. 
There was also a short letter, commenting on an article of Pro- 
fessor Lankester’s on the origins of intelligence, published in the 
Chicago Tribune. Of these, the lecture entitled ‘Animal 
Behavior” is the most important. It shows him at his best and 
is one of the ablest of his papers, which is equivalent to saying 
that it is one of the most admirable papers on this subject. Its 
style is clear, interesting, and direct; and it may be taken as a 
model by every investigator. Nowhere else is reasoning more 
solid and sound, or comment more illuminative. No other of 
his papers illustrates better the qualities of his genius: the selec- 
tion of a fundamental problem; painstaking study; publication 
only after years of observation and reflection; skill in laying bare 
the simple basis of an apparently complex group of phenomena; a 
grasp of the subject in all its bearings; and the use of the compara- 
tive or phyletic method of attack. 
He considers in this paper the fundamental questions of the 
origin of instinct and intelligence as illustrated by a study of the 
behavior of three kinds of animals upon which he worked at 
different periods of his life: the leech, Necturus, and the pig- 
eon. 
He begins with the simplest acts of Clepsine; its deceptive 
quiet when disturbed, a quiet of intense rigidity; and its rolling 
into a ball after feeding when it detaches itself from its host. He 
shows that the latter instinct can never have been acquired as 
a habit which has been stereotyped as an instinct, because Clep- 
sine feeds but twice or three times in its life. - ‘If the view here 
taken be correct,’”’ he says, ‘‘the instinct of rolling into a ball is 
not a matter of deliberation at all, but merely the action of an 
organization more or less nicely adjusted to special conditions 
and stimuli. Intelligence does not precede and direct, but the 
indifferent organic foundation with its general activities is pri- 
mary; the special behavior or instinct is built up by slowly modify- 
ing the organic basis.” 
